Former J&J consumer health chair joins TruTag

TruTag Technologies has named consumer healthcare veteran Jesse Wu – formerly of Johnson & Johnson – as a senior advisor.

Wu brings 30 years of experience to the role and was at J&J for 26 years, starting at the company in 1989 and eventually rising to become chairman of J&J China and worldwide chairman of J&J’s consumer division before retiring last year.

He said of joining product authentication specialist TruTag that “few things are more important to China than the ability to ensure the safety and authenticity of food and medicine,” adding: “TruTag…has developed an exciting and highly disruptive solution which will have a huge impact globally.”

“The potential application of the TruTag authentication platform is extremely broad, ranging from food, medicine, to traditional Chinese medicine, milk powder, wine, and other high value and mission critical products,” continued Wu.

TruTag has developed edible microtags that can be used as physico-chemical identifiers (PCIDs) to tag oral dosage forms such as tablets and capsules, as well as other products, and can be authenticated using handheld optical reader.

The new appointment is expected to help TruTag in its ongoing push into the Asian brand protection market, following on from collaborations with Indonesian private inspection and testing company PT Carusurin and Malaysian product identity specialist IRIS, as well as prior collaborations such as a link-up with WuXi PharmaTech in the drug industry.

The company is currently expanding its reach to China and across Asia as it tries to “improve the safety, traceability, and authenticity of food and medicine in the region,” said a spokesperson.

Last month, for example, TruTag forged an alliance with China’s Hongyang Biotechnology to apply its security tags across 1,500 farms in China, focusing initially on the pig industry. With the security platform, stakeholders would have the freedom to regulate their supply chains, with the ability to directly mark and authenticate livestock and meat packaging.