Technology developed by Ashifi Gogo, a Ph.D. candidate in the Thayer School of Engineering's Innovation Program, could potentially eliminate the threat posed by counterfeit drugs with the help of a simple text message. Gogo's company, Sproxil, can allow consumers to check the authenticity of pharmaceuticals by verifying codes printed on drug containers, he said in an interview with The Dartmouth.
Sproxil is conducting a trial in Nigeria, where the company has labeled one million sachets of a drug for diabetics with an authentication code, according to Gogo. Consumers can scratch off the label on the product and text the revealed code to Sproxil. They then receive a message in return verifying whether or not the drug is fake, he said.
Fake pharmaceuticals constitute a $75 billion per year business and make up one third of all medicine sold to developing countries, according to Reuters.
"It has gotten to the point where there is already [consumer] awareness that without the scratch-off label on this product you should probably not purchase it," he said.
The Nigerian Food and Drug Administration will use the results of the trial to evaluate on what scale, if any, to incorporate the idea in the country's existing legal framework for the verification of drug quality, Gogo said.
The company is currently negotiating the expansion of the service to protect the authenticity of other high-value, non-pharmaceutical items, including household electronics, office supplies and cell phones, according to Gogo.
Sproxil plans to expand into India and other countries in Africa during the next fiscal quarter, he said.
As more companies enlist in the service to authenticate their products, Sproxil will also be able to provide firms with valuable feedback about consumer purchasing behavior, Gogo said.
The success of Gogo's venture resulted largely from the encouragement of entrepreneurship at the Thayer School, according to Gogo and Thayer professor Elsa Garmire. Garmire has been Gogo's advisor for both his master's thesis and his current Ph.D.
Thayer's Ph.D. Innovation Program is unique in this country, Garmire said.
"I've gained a significant experience from the professors who quite largely are also entrepreneurs in the sectors that we do," Gogo said. "It's been very helpful taking these classes that focus on entrepreneurship that allow you to take your research and put it out in the field, to essentially validate the value that you're creating in the lab."
Gogo fulfilled the Innovation Program's requirement that students gain start-up experience by taking a year off to start his company, he said. Upon returning to Hanover, Gogo received additional training at the College that helped to refine the technology.
The assistance of faculty at the College helped Sproxil to implement the new technology successfully, Gogo said.
In addition to Garmire, Gogo cited Thayer School professor George Cybenko and Dean Emeritus Charles Hutchinson as important influences on his work.
"Hutch,' as we call him, has been very helpful in developing the section between the academic work and the entrepreneurial," Gogo said.
Garmire noted that Dartmouth as a general community is becoming very involved in encouraging entrepreneurship in developing countries. She cited the Humanitarian Engineering Leadership Project, a student organization that partners with nongovernmental organizations to develop engineering technologies, as one example.
Two Dartmouth graduates are currently working on a similar but independent project for drug authentication via cell phones in India, according to Garmire. While the project does not currently compete with Gogo's venture, as both expand geographically they could come into competition, she said. The simple technology utilized in the projects makes them difficult to patent, she said, so that commercial advantages will probably go to those who are most successful in marketing their product.
"[Gogo] is very good at getting publicity," Garmire said.
