Thin Film Electronics ASA (Thinfilm), a global leader in printed electronics and smart systems based in Oslo, recently announced a partnership with SmartSign, a global provider of digital security products and solutions in Southeast Asia. The companies hope to leverage Thinfilm’s NFC OpenSense™ technology to address massive counterfeiting that currently exists in many market segments in Vietnam in spirits, wine, tobacco, and pharmaceutical products including home health products. Considered as the next-generation anti-counterfeiting NFC solution, the partnership will enable the end-users in product authentication. By integrating the technology of this interactive sensor tag technology in their packaging solutions, the companies can boost consumer engagement capabilities for key brand owners and various government agencies.
The partnering companies will initially focus on the wine market in the spirits segment by integrating the anti-counterfeiting NFC solution across the country. the enormity of the problem was highlighted by the World Health Organization (WHO) stated in a 2014 report stating that “50% of all alcohol consumed in Vietnam is unrecorded,” which can lead to major health concerns and give rise to unfair competition practices, while promoting the evasion of legitimate tax revenues.
The security products provider SmartSign is also working actively on the strategy of developing intelligent packaging solutions for the healthcare market. The combined effort has enabled the company to create an interactive packaging solution for pharmaceutical brands to combat counterfeit in Rx and OTC medication packaging.
These tags are thin and flexible labels that has the technology to detect a product’s “factory sealed” and “opened” states and communicate the information to content wirelessly with the help of an NFC-enabled mobile devices. Through the use of unique identifiers it is possible for brands and government agencies to authenticate products and track them to the most basic level with the help of powerful software tools. In combination with the NFC OpenSense tags, SmartSign has developed a customized mobile app along with a back-end software that will lead to a potent end-to-end anti-counterfeit solution.
The technology will be showcased at an Anti-Counterfeiting Workshop featuring NFC technology and SMS labels in Hanoi this month. The companies will also demonstrate other technologies in its large product portfolio and it is expected that the event will be attended by several government agencies. There have been many other partnerships with ThinFilm which has enabled to leverage its strength in anti-counterfeit technology. The global electronics company has recently partnered with Constantia Flexibles to deliver pressure sensitive labels utilizing the technology to major brands in F&B industry leading to enhanced consumer engagement. Another partnership in the integrative anti-counterfeit has been for the brands in pharmaceutical and drug industry. The company has entered into a collaboration with Jones Packaging Inc., a leading packaging company based in London to develop an interactive packaging solution for pharmaceutical companies to address the menace of brand counterfeiting in Rx and OTC medication packaging. The effort has led to the integration of NFC OpenSense technology into paperboard packaging especially suitable for metalized packaging, such as in designing blisters used for cold/flu medication. The technology can also be aligned for solid dose products including caplets, tablets, capsules and gel caps.
Developments in various anti-counterfeit technologies will lead to enormous opportunities in the anti-counterfeit packaging market witnessed in terms of key partnerships and collaborations. Recently, Big Market Research has added a report titled “Global Anti-counterfeit Packaging Market 2016-2020”. The report offers in-depth industry insights into key market dynamics, technological advancements, recent developments in terms of major partnerships and contracts along with analyzing impact of changing competitive landscape on market growth opportunities across regions.
Source: http://embedded-computing.com/news/partnership-solutions-across-industries/