Telecoms company Bharti Airtel has joined forces with a mobile medicine verification firm, Sproxil, to combat Africa’s counterfeit drug market.
Medicines come with a scratch-off label that customers can remove to reveal a unique code. And customers can then SMS this code to Sproxil’s Mobile Product Authentication (MPA) system, which can immediately respond to the customer to indicate whether the product is genuine or fake.
The MPA system is set to be rolled-out in 17 African countries by the two companies.
Andre Beyers, chief marketing officer, Bharti Airtel, Africa says, “Our goal is to bring affordable and easily accessible health services to over 450 million people. And the battle against counterfeit drugs is a huge step towards this goal.”
“The collaboration between all the stakeholders in the mobile health ecosystem is key to a successful and sustainable future,” he added.
Ashifi Gogo, chief executive officer, Sproxil, said, “By working with Airtel, we can get short codes in various countries’ different markets from just one company, streamlining the process for our expansion throughout the region.”
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