SICPA’s company values are rooted in supporting governments to help them protect their populations. In the last two decades, their secure printing capabilities have taken the business into securing authentication of pharmaceutical products.

Arnaud Bernaert, Head of Health Security Solutions at SICPA, spoke at the FuturePrint Leaders Summit about the motivation behind portfolio extension.

THE SUBSTANCE SECURITY CHALLENGE

“More than 1 million people are dying every year from this plague - that is criminal activities from counterfeiting networks. Nations [are] being impacted, mostly in Africa, East Asia and Latam, where many drugs and vaccines are falsified or substandard products.”

The issue of product identification can only be addressed by verifying both the physical product and its digital twin (the one that is being followed based on supply chain management systems).  to ensure they match each step of the way.

He also identified another issue; when pharmaceuticals are imported in bulk, they have no physical packaging. resulting in no possibility to verify an authentication label Only the verification of the drug substance itself can help detect the fakes.

That’s where SICPA could take the opportunity to mark the tablets or the fluids in vials with DNA, providing the medicines with a unique identity and aiding to repel counterfeiting criminals.

THE PANDEMIC PREVENTION CHALLENGE

A case study was conducted by SICPA on 350 planes in the Gulf region, where wastewater was tested for COVID-19 and its variants. The results showed that, despite having a negative antigen test prior to boarding, up to 20% of the passengers were in fact positive.

As mentioned by Bernaert, the post COVID pandemic lesson is that: “We need to find solutions to detect epidemics earlier, so that treatments can be innovated faster and responses can be tailored appropriately.”

 The Health Crisis Management Cockpit created by SICPA aggregates  data from governmental authorities, and from wastewater analysis with hundreds ofpublic data sources.

As the data is collected every day in a decentralised fashion, its analysis helpsggovernments make better informed decisions based on predictive modeling and simulation planning.

LIFE SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY IN APPLICATION

Roberta Sirio, Director, B2B Sales at SICPA who also spoke during the Leaders Summit, highlights how devices currently developed by the company are “closing the loop between biology and digital printing to enforce the mission of SICPA to enable trust in life science.”

First, Sirio introduced the “Lab-on-chip” which is a miniaturised device used for human diagnostics to create personalised medicine or to test water pollution. As it is cost-effective, it can be distributed widely and reach remote locations.

Secondly, she explained that as DNA analysis requires managing several hundreds of bio inks, which is time consuming, the special “Bio Cartridge” was developed, with the capacity to spot up to 96 bio inks at a time. One of the phenomenal applications include interactive “In Vitro Diagnosis”, spotting nucleic acid like the DNA strain, which for example enables detection of cancerous cells. Just like the previous device, the advantages are cost- effectiveness and its remote location application. 

Lastly, the most jaw-dropping solution was revealed - Engineered DNA. Engineered DNA holds data which can be manipulated and engineered to create synthetic DNA. It can be used to insert the proof of origin into the product to provide it’s authentication or to detect a fraud for example in food and agriculture as well as objects such as valued paintings, this last in combination with SICPA’s CERTUS® digital certificate and blockchain solutions. digital certificate and blockchain solutions.

You can find full presentations from Arnaud Bernaert here and from Roberta Sirio here.