Sproxil Awarded Grant from Human Development Innovation Fund
Grant Will Fund Expansion of Anti-Counterfeiting and Brand Loyalty Services to Tanzania
Cambridge, MA (March 16, 2015) – Sproxil®, a leading provider of innovative brand protection and loyalty solutions, has been awarded grant funding from the Human Development Innovation Fund (HDIF) in partnership with DFID, the United Kingdom’s government department responsible for administering overseas aid. The grant will be used to help expand Sproxil’s business into Tanzania and to educate consumers about the health risks associated with counterfeit products.
Sproxil’s award-winning anti-counterfeiting service, Mobile Product Authentication™ (MPA™), is a free service that safeguards consumers by giving them the tools to differentiate between fake and genuine products through the use of a mobile phone. The solution already protects products across multiple industries, including pharmaceuticals, consumer packaged goods, electrical cabling, automotive parts, and home goods. MPA is widely trusted by leading pharmaceutical companies to curb the multi-billion dollar counterfeit drug industry.
The MPA service is simple to use and can be accessed by any mobile phone. Before purchasing a product, the consumers scratch a label to reveal a unique, one-time-use code. They then SMS text the code to a secure number provided on the product package. Within seconds, Sproxil notifies the end-user, via SMS, of the result. Alternatively, end users can verify using Sproxil’s iOS, Android, and Blackberry mobile apps, by web, or through the company’s call center to get results in their local language. The company provides the most channels to verify products instantly.
“We are grateful to HDIF for recognizing the value and importance of Sproxil’s efforts to protect consumers from the dangers of counterfeit products,” states Danielle Goldschneider, Sproxil’s Strategic Partnerships Manager. “We believe our services will make a significant impact on decreasing the amount of dangerous counterfeit products, specifically healthcare products, which continue to infiltrate the market in Tanzania.”
Drug counterfeiting is a global crisis: according to the World Customs Organization, the counterfeit drug market is estimated at $200 billion with over 700,000 deaths each year due to fake malaria and tuberculosis drugs alone. Counterfeiting has serious economic impacts as well. A report conducted by the Confederation of Tanzanian Industries (CTI) concluded that Tanzania was losing between 15 to 25 percent of the total domestic tax revenues due to counterfeit products.
About Sproxil
Sproxil® is an ISO 27001 and ISO 9001 certified social enterprise that uses mobile technology to combat counterfeiting and increase brand equity with innovative, consumer-focused product protection and targeted marketing solutions. Its award-winning Mobile Product Authentication™ (MPA™) service helps ensure goods are not counterfeit or compromised, empowering consumers to verify product genuineness by SMS, mobile app, web or voice. Compatible with any tangible item, MPA is widely used by leading pharmaceutical companies to curb the multi-billion dollar counterfeit drug industry. MPA also protects products across multiple industries, including personal care, automotive aftermarket parts, and electrical cables.
The company has been recognized globally for its efforts against counterfeiting and is endorsed by regulatory bodies in Nigeria and Kenya. Sproxil received the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office 2013 Patents for Humanity Award in Information Technology, the 2010 IBM SmartCamp Boston Award, and the 2009 Clinton Global Initiative Outstanding Commitment Award. In 2013, Sproxil was named the most innovative company in healthcare and #7 overall by Fast Company Magazine. Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, Sproxil has operations in India, Ghana (serving West Africa), Kenya (serving East Africa), Mexico, Nigeria, and Pakistan, with the ability to execute projects on six major continents.
For more information and a full list of Sproxil’s solution suite, please visit www.sproxil.com.
About the Human Development Innovation Fund
The Human Development Innovation Fund (HDIF) is a £30 million, five-year program funded by the United Kingdom Government. HDIF seeks to catalyze the development, testing, and scaling of innovative models of service delivery, use of Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D), and product solutions in health, education, and WASH (water, sanitation, and hygiene). The intended impact of HDIF is improved human development outcomes for poor people in Tanzania, with a focus on non-state actors and the effective utilization of public-private partnerships.
