the Problem of:
- Counterfeiting
- Product Recall and Return Monitoring
- Product Diversion
- Quality Control
SECURtracers helps reduce liabilities, prevents loss of revenue, and provides brand protection.
Manufacturing these tracers requires extremely specialized semiconductor equipment and technical skills.
The difficulty and cost to acquire such equipment and the expertise necessary to operate it pose high barriers to entry for potential counterfeiters.
Although most taggants require expensive readers for authentication, SECURtracers can be easily identified in two easy steps using inexpensive, readily available devices.
- Made entirely of GRAS (generally recognized as safe) materials
- Complies with FDA guidelines for use in pills, powders, and coating
- Chemically inert, non-digestible, and added at an extremely low addition rate
- Instantly identify SECURtracers as gold fluorescent specks using a UV flashlight
- Authenticate by viewing micro-engraved lettering under an inexpensive hand-held microscope
- Particles can be customized to 50-200 microns in any dimension with micro-engraved lettering of 10 microns in size
- Engraving can include almost any letter, number, or symbol (e.g., company name, batch number or lot number)
- Differentiating proprietary products from counterfeits and batch/lot verification
- Traceability
- Validating recalled and returned products
- A legacy of success: Micro-Tracers, Inc. has manufactured tracers since 1961
- SECURtracers is a result of years of collaboration between semiconductor technology & polymer chemists
- Manufactured using a patented, proprietary process
The FDA has acknowledged the potential value of PCIDs as a novel anti-counterfeit solution.
In 2011, the FDA published the Guidance for Industry – Incorporation of Physical-Chemical Identifiers into Solid Oral Dosage Form Drug Products for Anti-counterfeiting.
The FDA recommends that:
- The PCIDs are pharmacologically inactive so they can be treated as excipients
- The manufacturers use permissible direct food additives that are generally recognized as safe (GRAS), or ingredients listed in the agency’s Inactive Ingredient Guide (IIG)
- The PCIDs are added to the product at the lowest level that will ensure the dosage unit’s identification
SECURtracers meets all outlined criteria.