Mobile phone services to tackle the dissemination of fake drugs

The problem of counterfeit medicines was first addressed at the international level in 1985 at the Conference of Experts on the Rational Use of Drugs in Nairobi. The meeting recommended that WHO, together with other international organizations and NGOs should study the feasibility of setting up a clearing house to collect data and to inform governments about the nature and extent of this phenomenon.
In February 2006, the World Health Organization launched the International Medical Products Anti-Counterfeiting Taskforce (IMPACT).  At its core, IMPACT aims to build coordinated networks across and between countries in order to halt the production, trading and selling of fake medicines around the globe.
Recently, Sproxil, a social enterprise, developed a labelling technology called Cascading Authentication targeted for medicines distributed in developing countries which takes advantage of the large distribution of mobile phones in these countries. All genuine drugs, tracked within the supply chain from the factory to the final retailers, are identified by a specific code on the package.  Local consumers, simply by texting this code to the operator get an instant response confirming the brand's genuineness.

Cascading Authentication - Sproxil

Further information

MPedigree an NGO in Ghana, produced a video on counterfeit medicines.

Sproxil website of the social enterprise

         

Mobile phones and broadband subscriptions in developing countries

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) the UN agency established to promote  the development of networks and services for information and communication technology released interesting statistical data on mobile phones sales and Internet access via broadband  connection. With regards to cell phones sales, the 3G technology is increasing its market share both in developed and developing countries. Main difference between 2G and 3G network resides in the faster data speeds offered by 3G. The 3G standard allows data, pictures and videos to be uploaded and downloaded quickly, while for voice use and text messaging, the differences between the two standards is minimal.
The developing world is increasing its share of mobile subscriptions from 53% of total mobile subscriptions at the end of 2005 to 73% at the end of 2010. In particular, countries like China and India and others in the Asia Pacific region are leading this growth.
The situation is still critical in Africa. While 71% of the population in developed countries are online, Internet user penetration in Africa will reach in 2010 only 9.6%, far behind both the world average (30%) and the developing country average (21%).

Further details on the access to the Internet are available on the Internet World Stats site.