The Frost & Sullivan Best Practices Award is given to companies that show excellence in leadership, technological innovation, customer service, or strategic product development. Frost & Sullivan works in collaboration with clients to leverage visionary innovation to address global challenges and growth opportunities.
In the case of TruTag Technologies, the award is in recognition of developing microtags that allow healthcare and pharmaceutical companies to collect information such as dosage, manufacturing site, authorized distribution channel, lot number, drug package insert, and related safety information digitally. Such information is a drug regulatory requirement in the battle to combat counterfeit goods and illegally sold medicines.
The product related to the award is TruTag’s silicon dioxide particle-based microtags. These are marketed as “TruTags”. The aim is to allow customers to authenticate, identify, and track products along the length of a supply chain. This control is achieved by generating an optical signature. One advantage of the process is that silicon dioxide is fit for human consumption, which reduces a safety related concern.
In the world of healthcare there have been moves by the major regulators like the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Health Canada and the U.K. Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to reinforce ‘Good Distribution Practice’. This regulation deals with the guidelines for the proper distribution of medicinal products for human use, acting as a quality warranty system. The stipulations include requirements for purchase, receiving, storage and export of drugs intended for human consumption.
Silicon dioxide particles can be used directly on pharmaceuticals since they are both biocompatible and biodegradable. They are also suitable for assessing shipping conditions, being able to withstand temperatures of up to 1,000 degrees Celsius. By using unique combinations of nano-pores of customizable shape and depth for each customer, the TruTag technology allows each product to be tracked and this allows the customer receiving a product containing the particles to verify with the vendor that it is indeed the correct product and no act of piracy has taken place.
Recently TruTag has entered into a strategic partnership with PT Carsurin, an Indonesia-based inspection and testing company in order to enhance its supply chain security.
