Product safety is a key factor in the pharmaceutical industry. Especially with sensitive medicines, it is important that the contents and packaging are undoubtedly a perfect match. Classic security features like QR codes are increasingly reaching their practical limits. Origify, a technology from Bosch Secure Authentication GmbH, offers a different approach: it uses the natural surface structure of packaging materials to make each product uniquely identifiable.
The safety of pharmaceutical products is also a significant economic factor. The legal pharmaceutical sector in the EU loses an estimated ten billion euros every year due to counterfeiting. On unauthorised websites in the unregulated online market alone, it is likely that one in two medicines is counterfeit.
It must be ensured that medicines are genuine throughout the entire supply chain. This starts with the delivery of raw materials, goes through the manufacturer and wholesaler, and extends to pharmacies, medical facilities, and patients. Tampering with easily labelled packaging does occur and has clearly demonstrated how difficult it is to detect. While such cases are relatively rare, „Nevertheless, even in Germany, roughly one in every hundred medicines in circulation is counterfeit,“ explains Oliver Steinbis, Technical Managing Director of Bosch Secure Authentication GmbH.
This increases the demands placed on modern security solutions: they must be reliable, scalable, and at the same time suitable for everyday use. Against this backdrop, protection against product piracy and manipulation is also gaining increasing strategic importance.
Limits of classical security features
Many existing systems are based on visible, applied features such as barcodes, QR codes, or holograms. These enable traceability and verification, but are in principle reproducible. „Modern printing and reproduction technologies allow such features to be replicated with high precision,“ says Steinbis. Additionally, digital links, such as those via QR codes, are only as secure as the underlying infrastructure. „For example, if a user is redirected to a manipulated website via a fake code, this is generally difficult for the user to recognise. They therefore feel a false sense of security.“ Optical security features also do not always offer the desired security in everyday life, as their authenticity can often only be reliably judged by a trained eye. The industry is therefore faced with the challenge of developing security solutions that are not only difficult to copy, but ideally not reproducible at all.
The surface structure as a unique identifier
This is precisely where Origify comes in. „It doesn't need another more complex, even more costly feature; instead, we simply use the surface that's already there,“ explains Oliver Steinbis regarding the approach. Rather than applying an additional security feature, the technology utilises the existing, unique microstructure of packaging materials. This is because packaging only appears identical at first glance. When captured with high-resolution digital scanning, it becomes clear: every surface possesses an individual structure, much like a fingerprint.
Origify analyses around 10,000 specific features over an area of approximately five square millimetres, such as the arrangement of paper fibres or the finest printing variations. This multiple combination is irreproducible and acts as a kind of digital identity. Each individual cardboard box, label, or blister thus becomes uniquely identifiable, without any additional materials or visible changes to the packaging. „For comparison, the police compare a total of twelve features for human fingerprints,“ says Steinbis.
Practical relevance for pharmaceutical packaging
A particular advantage of the technology for the pharmaceutical industry is that it secures the packaging itself, not the product. This is crucial for both hygienic and production reasons. „This also closes a massive security gap, namely the refilling of original packaging that has already been used,“ says Steinbis. For example, if someone refills diluted medical liquids into used original infusion bags and hospital staff scan the label, the system will recognise the label as original, but at the same time report that the medicine has already been used and raise the alarm. This creates an additional layer of security that is particularly relevant in complex supply chains. Furthermore, each unit can be individually tracked without having to fundamentally change existing production processes.
Transparency in global supply chains
Another key advantage is the improved traceability of products recorded in this way. Pharmaceutical companies operate in international markets with diverse pricing and distribution structures. The unique identification of each individual package makes it possible to precisely track and trace product flows. This allows companies to identify early on if products appear outside their intended markets. This transparency not only supports protection against illegal grey market diversions but also strengthens overall control over their own supply chain. Thus, Origify becomes a tool that goes beyond mere counterfeit protection and actively contributes to the optimisation of logistical processes.
Integration without process interruption
For packaging manufacturers, easy integration into existing processes and workflows is a crucial factor. As the technology is based on existing material properties, no additional printing steps or layout adjustments are required. Furthermore, areas that are not visible can also be defined, which are exclusively used for internal inspection processes. This opens up new possibilities for multi-stage security concepts without compromising user-friendliness.
Origify therefore offers clear added value for the pharmaceutical packaging industry: increased counterfeit protection, improved traceability, and integration without interfering with existing processes. In an industry where trust, quality, and traceability are essential, this technology makes a forward-looking contribution to further securing global supply chains.
