TruTag teams with WuXi to enter pharma market

Edible tag firm TruTag could get a boost in the pharmaceutical sector after cutting a deal with WuXi PharmaTech.

WuXi's primary business is providing contract research, development and manufacturing services to clients in the biopharma industry and will offer TruTag's on-dose authentication solution to its outsourcing customers.

TruTags are inert and edible silica microtags that can be incorporated into products and used as markers for authentication, helping to prevent counterfeiting and diversion.

"Millions of optical patterns can be embedded into a TruTag, a dust-sized particle smaller than the width of a human hair," said the company in a statement.

"Using this technology, brand owners, including pharmaceutical companies, will be able to field-read finished tablets circulating in the wholesale and retail market to determine the authenticity and provenance of medicines, including detailed information such as site and date of manufacture, lots, and other critical data," it added.

In addition to pharma, TruTag is also developing the technology for use in the food and beverage, electronics, consumer products and industrial component sectors.

Last October for example the company announced a large-scale agreement with an unidentified company to use TruTags on toner and inkjet cartridges.