Systech and Excellis Health will partner for brand authentication and traceability

Emphasizing both traceability and brand authentication—and for industries beyond pharmaceuticals—Excellis Health Solutions and Systech International are partnering to provide strategic and operational services to global clients. Systech has a long history in machine vision systems and IT systems in packaging, and has multiple pharma clients for its traceability solutions for compliance with the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA). More recently, it has been marketing a “non-additive” brand-authentication technology, UniSecure, which uses minute physical features of labels to create a “fingerprint” for authentication. Excellis, which has grown over the past four years to nearly 150 traceability consultants in the US and Europe, provides strategic consulting.

“Keeping products safe and supply chains secure has become a daily challenge for global brands,” said Ara Ohanian, CEO of Systech, in a statement. “Businesses need the strategic and technological capabilities to stop the growing diversion and counterfeiting epidemic.”

Adds Greg Cathcart, CEO Excellis Health, “This partnership enables exactly what has been missing. The ability to utilize existing investments, modern technology and services to protect the most important asset a business has -- its brand reputation.”

Given that a key objective of DSCSA is to prevent counterfeit products from entering the US pharma supply chain, it’s not readily apparent that authentication technology like UniSecure is of interest to the pharma industry. However, industry experts know that DSCSA compliance is not a bulletproof solution; moreover, at this point, the progress that the pharma industry has made in traceability and authentication is providing a model to other industries, such as food and consumer goods.