

A breath reveals a hidden image in anti-counterfeit drug labels - alternize
http://ns.umich.edu/new/multimedia/videos/22323-a-breath-reveals-a-hidden-image-in-anti-counterfeit-drug-labels

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userbinator
_The method requires access to sophisticated equipment that can create very
tiny features, roughly 500 times smaller than the width of a human hair_

Semiconductor fabs are doing this already, in the form of MEMS devices. The
setup cost is not cheap, but not all that expensive either for determined
counterfeiters.

This reminds me of holograms and microprinting - they were (and still are)
considered great anti-counterfeiting measures, but now you can buy sheets of
them printed with whatever you want for next to nothing. If this technology
becomes popular, it might not be long before these "hidden images" end up
everywhere.

If there was an easy way to test the _drug itself_ for the right quantity and
composition, I think that would be a much better solution, although somewhat
more difficult in practice... for some reason this reminds me of
[http://xkcd.com/810/](http://xkcd.com/810/)

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Yardlink
Researchers always think of ambitious applications for their work. Somehow the
presentation didn't show how it's easier for the legitimate manufacturer to do
than for the counterfeiter. If it's nothing more than an expensive process
they might not be able to afford, then why not short circuit it and attach
money directly to the drugs to prove they're real?

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pedrocr
> If it's nothing more than an expensive process they might not be able to
> afford, then why not short circuit it and attach money directly to the drugs
> to prove they're real?

The idea is indeed odd but this solution doesn't work. The point of
expensive/complex anti-counterfeit measures isn't that they're expensive per-
item, it's that they have a high fixed cost so they make setting up a
counterfeit operation very expensive. They should be cheap or free in per-item
variable cost, so that someone doing the real thing can amortize the large
fixed cost over their large volume.

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Cyykratahk
Slightly off-topic, but I hope the credit card they showed in the video was
cancelled, because you can see the last 12 digits as well as the expiry. And
using the logos and text displayed on the back it would be trivial to work out
the first four digits.

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sammamishwa1
I just received a patent which protects each tablet from being counterfeited,
the actual tablet, not the label or packaging Holograms and expensive printing
are nonsense, drug orgs have millions to spend on printers

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aidos
It looks like cool technology but I missed how it combats counterfeiting of
drugs. Was there something in there about how it's tied to the structure of
the drug you're taking?

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jamesgeck0
Counterfeiters presumably won't have access to the specialized equipment
required to print the label.

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eridius
How about a boxcutter and access to discarded empty bottles that used to
contain the real medicine?

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DanBC
That obviously rate limits the amount of counterfeiting they can do.

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nightcracker
Yes, from 10% (current state) to 50% (the "limited" state).

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dzhiurgis
Try getting moisture with your breadth on anything when its warmer than 24 C
degrees..

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readerrrr
No problem, I just did it at 25 °C with little effort.

