No matter where you are in the world, you may soon be able to check if the medicine, the toy or even the cigarette brand you just bought is a fake or genuine.

An Interpol Global Register (IGR) has been created to allow consumers check the authenticity of certain consumer goods using their unique security features.

First off the block on the initiative is PharmaSecure, a drug authentication technology company that has security coded more than one million packets of medicines produced every day in India.

It has provided drug-makers what is known locally as the SMS-check on medicines. Medicine strips have a mobile number and an SMS code printed on them. A consumer in doubt about the authenticity of the drug, can SMS the code to the number and get a confirmation.

Drug companies such as Lupin and Unichem, for instance, have adopted the technology to empower consumers to check the authenticity of medicines, said Mr Kishore Kar of PharmaSecure in India. The company has done business worth Rs 25 crore in India, in two years.

The IGR empowers consumers and law-enforcement officials, enabling anyone with a mobile phone or an Internet-connected device to verify a product’s legitimacy by screening these features to find out if the product is fake or illicitly traded, an Interpol note said.

Google Ideas developed a ‘proof of concept’ model for the IGR, unveiled at the Google INFO summit in Los Angeles where its functionality was first demonstrated.

There are links between transnational organised crime, terrorism and the trafficking of illicit goods which generate profits globally at little risk to the traffickers, the Interpol said. According to estimates, more than $2 trillion is generated annually through illicit trade, it added.

Searches can be conducted by entering details manually or scanning a code via mobile applications available on the Android, Apple, Microsoft and BlackBerry platforms which will then deliver fast, accurate and location-based information.

> jyothi@thehindu.co.in

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