@Risk

The counterfeiting of pharmaceuticals is growing in both scope and impact, and now manufacturers and regulators alike are searching for more sophisticated traceability systems.

One “breakthrough approach” currently in development will allow manufacturers to label their products with a two-dimensional dot-matrix that is linked to an online database. GB Innomech, the company developing the new coding system, says this new approach is low-cost and effective: (more…)

Last month, federal officials cracked down on West Coast shop owners who allegedly sell counterfeit merchandise.

In one of the largest federal enforcement actions ever taken against West Coast retailers suspected of selling counterfeit designer apparel and accessories, the authorities seized approximately $100 million worth of counterfeit merchandise and charged the owners, operators and employees of eight shops in San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf district with a 25-count indictment.

According to a press release, the designer fakes, which were illegally imported from China, included clothing, handbags and wallets, jewelry and watches, scarves, sunglasses and shoes –all bearing the labels of more than 70 well-known designer brands. Among the brands were a number of US-based companies like Oakley, Dooney and Bourke, Nike, Coach and Kate Spade, and foreign designers such as Armani, Burberry, Prada and Louis Vuitton. Affidavits filed in connection with the case describe multiple instances where clerks at the targeted stores acknowledged to ICE undercover agents posing as customers that the merchandise they were buying was counterfeit. (more…)

Counterfeiters continue to infiltrate the global pharmaceutical supply chain, and increasingly now thay appear to be targeting high-value drugs, such as HIV antivirals and cancer treatments, according to FiercePharmaManufacturing.

In fact, in Germany, dozens of pharmacies are currently under investigation for suspected distribution of illegal and fake drugs, including painkillers, antibiotics and cancer treatments, as well as so-called “lifestyle medicines,” such as impotency drugs and bodybuilding products. This high-profile case seems especially troubling because, among other things, the pharmacists are alleged to have mixed illegally-acquired medicines with genuine product. (more…)

Based on the large amount of traffic at my last post –“How Many Fake Parts Are In Your Supply Chain?” –it’s clear that many of you are thinking about the integrity of your supplier networks.

But, remember this: That integrity isn’t dependent solely on genuine electronics and the other components that we typically think of as “parts.” The integrity of your supply chain also relies on that ambiguous, amorphous factor known as the “human element.”

And in fact, it seems that these days the human element matters more than ever before.

Thomas Friedman eloquently discusses this very issue in his Op-Ed piece, “A Question From Lydia,” in yesterday’s New York Times.

As Friedman sees it, our increasingly integrated world has made us –and by extension, our supply chains –more ethically interdependent.  He writes: (more…)

Counterfeit parts are increasingly infiltrating the electronics supply chain, and now anywhere between five to 20 percent of components in common consumer electronics are “probably” counterfeit, according to a new article in Engineering & Technology magazine, a publication of the Institution of Engineering and Technology.

In the article, “The Global Trade in Counterfeit Consumer Electronics,” author Kris Sangani points out that counterfeiters are becomingly progressively more adept at manufacturing fake components. That means, of course, that methods to detect counterfeit products also need to be more complex.

But, short of x-raying each component, what can electronics manufacturers do? And what about supply chains in other sectors? How can you mitigate risks and maintain the integrity of your supplier network? (more…)