Pakistan has a high penetration of mobile phones and a large presence of counterfeit pharmaceutical products. The team behind Asli Goli put these two facts together to come up with an idea that leverages the widespread access to mobile phones to solve the problem of illegal counterfeit products that put countless lives at risk.
How it works
Asli Goli is an idea for an SMS-based service that will allow consumers to verify the authenticity of the pharmaceutical products they purchase. The concept is simple: Asli Goli’s partners will put serial numbers on their medicine, the consumer can text those serial numbers to Asli Goli and receive a response verifying the medicine they just bought.
The platform would also provide some value-addition by providing consumers with services such as information on the medicine or alerts to remind them to take the medicine regularly. Data collected on consumers can also be sold to pharmaceutical companies or other interested parties who wish to target specific segments of the market.
An Uphill Task
While the idea sounds attractive, there are many hurdles that Asli Goli will need to clear before it becomes a reality. There are several aspects that put a big question mark on how successful this solution will be, even if it is realized to its full potential. These are questions that their team might have already thought about or been asked at the start-up competition and accelerator that they have participated in.
Pharmaceutical Industry Today
Pharmaceutical companies already have measures in place that help consumers steer clear of counterfeit products, such as seals and stickers on their products. A Bloomberg article on the issue reveals that there are several give-away signs of fake drugs: obsolete packaging, missing insignia or misspelled brand names. The Asli Goli idea works best when there is no other way for the consumer to tell the original medicine from the counterfeit version.
Another big issue in this space is local (yet legal) manufacturing of low-quality and low-priced replacements (same active ingredient – at least on the label) of popular drugs. The SMS-verification method would not be able to do much against this segment of the industry.
The authentication service might not also be able to cover is in-house supply of medicine at hospitals and clinics.
Logistics
In terms of logistics, the serial-number-on-the-box idea falls short for medicine that is purchased in smaller quantities as strips, with the box sitting with the drug stores as it empties out.
The needed change in packaging would require a huge undertaking on part of the manufacturers to modify their packaging to integrate the serial number in an indelible manner. Putting on stickers that can be peeled off, for example, will make the authentication service ineffective till every medicine is universally expected to have the sticker.
Consumer Behavior
Let’s assume that this project goes through and serial numbers are printed on all original medicine and Asli Goli is recognized as the sole source of identifying right from wrong. There is no guarantee that consumers, after seeing the Asli Goli number/logo on the products, will not just take that as a sign of authenticity without making the extra effort of sending the SMS. Once such an attitude sets in, counterfeit Asli Goli stickers/labels would just be an additional overhead for the current suppliers of fake drugs.
Even if consumers send the text once, this might indicate to them that the store they bought the product from is trustworthy and there is no further need to check on purchases made from that store. Consumers, especially in urban centers, also have the option of purchasing medicine from reliable stores that they have been satisfied customers of, even before the advent of Asli Goli.
Critical Mass
The team behind Asli Goli aims to sign up the big pharmaceutical brands selling the top-selling medicine. Assuming that not every one is on-board at once, the initial limited launch would just mean extra scrutiny for the marked drugs and business as usual for the possibly counterfeit unmarked ones.
Perhaps, targeting the industry association of pharmaceutical manufacturers or lawmakers will lead to a wider initial launch. The idea works best after it has reached a critical mass in terms of its presence across brands as well as its recognition among the public.
Reaching that stage might be tough if you are trying to convince one manufacturer at a time, because initial success of such start-up technologies is important for the concept to catch on. In this case, the first adopters will unlikely be the first ones to see any gains.
Do-It-Yourself
This model can be easily replicated. Even if this catches on, some pharmaceutical companies might prefer to, well, do it themselves. Financial competitiveness might not be the only metric here as, for example, large companies might not be too happy at the prospect of their customers’ data being sold to competitors.
Hoping for the best
While simple ideas can be solutions to complex problems and Asli Goli is a step in that direction, it is definitely not the elixir for this one. We can only hope that the team behind Asli Goli surpasses all these hurdles and proves all critics wrong, making money and saving lives in the process.
Connect with them
Leave a Reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
