Social Issue

In many developing countries, it is estimated that up to 30% of drugs are counterfeit, which poses a serious threat to public health. It is estimated that approximately 700,000 deaths occur annually from fake anti-malarial and tuberculosis drugs alone. Counterfeiting also degrades the brand of legitimate manufacturers.

Our Response

Sproxil is a US-based company with operations in Africa and India, who has developed an effective anti-counterfeiting solution for pharmaceutical companies and other consumer goods producers.

Sproxil has developed a Mobile Product Authentication™ (MPA™) solution that enables consumers to verify that the product they are buying is genuine. It is very effective in markets with high rates of counterfeiting and high levels of cell-phone penetration. Pharmaceutical manufacturers like GSK, Novartis, and Johnson & Johnson are Sproxil’s main clients who purchase the codes, which are then placed on their products. When consumers purchase the product, they can call or SMS a toll-free number, which will respond in milliseconds, verifying or denying that the product is legitimate.

Sproxil started operations in Nigeria and has now expanded to Ghana, East Africa, India and is planning to enter additional markets.

Expected Social Impact

This loan will be used for technology enhancements and expansion into new markets and the development of existing sales and marketing operations in India, Kenya, and Ghana.  We calculate that the impact attributable directly to Netri’s investment is to enable over 400,000 people to verify their products, which extrapolating from the current incidence of issue alerts, could expose at least 13,000 counterfeit products.