Memory polymer combines cold chain, authenticity check

Chinese drugmaker Nanjing Tianlang Pharmaceutical has been awarded a US patent (No. 10,059,140) on an anti-counterfeit – based on shape memory polymers – that can also be used to monitor temperature adherence.

The polymers described in the patent can be used to create labels that change shape in response to differing temperatures, and can provide an at-a-glance indicator if a medicinal product has been exposed to temperatures that could affect its integrity and effectiveness. An additional function is that “we can indicate the authenticity of a target article according to the rule of the polymers of gradual morphology change with temperature rise in the shape recovery process,” it says.

 The technology “is simple in manufacturing steps, high in manufacturing efficiency and low in cost, and a temperature indication or multilevel anti-counterfeit indication method, which is low in implementation cost and high in indication precision,” concludes the patent.

The abstract of the patent appears below:

Temperature indication or multilevel anti-counterfeit indication label based on shape memory polymer and temperature indication or multilevel anti-counterfeit indication method thereof

Abstract: The present invention relates to temperature detection and indication technology and anti-counterfeit indication technology, and particularly to a temperature indication or multilevel anti-counterfeit indication label and a temperature indication or multilevel anti-counterfeit indication method based on a shape memory polymer. The temperature indication or multilevel anti-counterfeit indication label based on the shape memory polymer includes a matrix of a thermally driven shape memory polymer material, and one or more predeformations are formed on the matrix; the predeformation is formed in one or more stress processes at the same temperature; when multiple predeformations are formed, the sizes of the multiple predeformations are different; and when one predeformation is formed, the geometrical dimension of the predeformation continuously changes along the extension direction of the predeformation.

(US Patent No. 10,059,140)