GoldKeys, an application to detect fake medicines

A veritable scourge in developing countries, fake medicines kill tens of thousands of people a year. Ghanaian company mPedigree has created GoldKeys, a platform for checking the authenticity of medicines.

7 second verification

In sub-Saharan Africa, counterfeit medicines have become worrying: WHO estimates 30% of fake drugs sold in the area. For exemple, 113 million fake drugs (anti-inflammatory, antibiotic or anticancer) were intercepted in 14 African countries in June 2014.

In order to address this problem, mPedigree, a Ghanaian company, created GoldKeys, which verifies the authenticity of medicines. Medicines have encrypted codes, present on their box: just scrape the packaging and send the code there by SMS, to ensure the authenticity of the medicine box. The Goldkeys platform then searches its database, and responds "OK" if it is a real drug or "NO" in the opposite case, 7 seconds later.

A system made possible by collaboration between mPedigree and governments as well as major pharmaceutical companies, national regulatory bodies and official distributors.

To top it all, the service is free. All you need is a cell phone and the app. After all, health is priceless.

A major problem

The application has been tested in Ghana since 2007, and then spread to a dozen countries in Africa (Nigeria, Kenya, Rwanda, etc.) and the Middle East, and has recently been launched in Asia (India in particular, where mPedigree has set up its logistics center), also affected by the phenomenon. The consumption of fake medicines comes from the sometimes very high cost of pharmaceutical products. People then turn to street vendors, much cheaper, but much more risky, since a fake medicine can do considerable damage.

In 2014, more than 100 million drug package codes have passed through the GoldKeys platform, witness the success of the application. The young company does not intend to stop there and continue to manage its growth by developing little by little in as many countries as possible. mPedigree also hopes to receive help from organizations such as the WHO, which, unfortunately, have been content to observe the situation. Maybe the help will come from big companies, which are also getting into health, like Google?

mPedigree also intends to export its know-how and its GoldKeys instant verification system for other product categories: textiles, automotive components or beverages. So you can soon if your Chateau neuf les papes is a real or a horrible piquet.

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