PharmaSecure in the Field

Nathan Sigworth, a 2008 Echoing Green Fellow, created PharmaSecure to use mobile technology to reduce the sale of counterfeit drugs in developing countries. Since its founding, the social enterprise has focused on India—with a $12billion market for drugs, with perhaps up to twenty-five percent being distributed as counterfeit, it was a good place to start!

How it works: Pharmasecure partners with pharmaceutical companies to attach a unique identifier, along with a phone number, on their drugs. When you buy the drug from a pharmacy, you text this identifier to the number and you receive an SMS back letting you know whether or not the drug is authentic. With just a few steps, imagine the public health implications, particularly for communities with low literacy.

With a recent boost of funding led by Eric Schmidt at Innovation Endeavor, along with Gray Ghost, and Healthtech Capital, PharmaSecure aims to provide serialization on over one billion pharmaceutical packages in India over the next year.

A look at PharmaSecure in the field—and just how easy it is to use their technology:

Learn more about our other Fellows working in India.