TruTag Technologies Inc.

Location: Hawaii, USA
Number of employees: 10+
Year founded: 2010

TruTag Technologies Inc.
650 Iwilei Road, Suite 250
Honolulu, HI 96817
USA

Website: www.trutags.com

When you swallow a pill, how do you know it is genuine? Counterfeit pharmaceuticals cost an estimated US$ 80 billion a year, in addition to the potentially dire human consequences.

Imagine every individual pill containing a tiny, edible identifier. You could scan the pill with a handheld device and immediately confirm, on your smartphone, the identity of the drug and its dosage, manufacturer, lot code and expiry date.

TruTag Technologies is working with major pharmaceutical firms to place TruTags in their products. TruTags are made of silica – a substance approved by the FDA, biologically inert and safe to eat – and use nanotechnology to embed a unique code, like a bar code, into a tag that is smaller than the width of a human hair. The codes are linked to a database that adds a time-related dimension of encryption, making the tags practically impossible to counterfeit.

Initially, TruTag envisages this technology being used within corporations to verify the origins of high-value products and components at each stage of their supply chain. In addition to pharmaceuticals, early applications of TruTags are likely to include foodstuffs, milk powders, computer chips, electronic components, and parts used in the automotive and aviation industries. TruTags can withstand temperatures up to 1,000°C.

In the longer term, TruTags will impact the US$ 350 billion global counterfeit market. Retailers and consumers could routinely use TruTag readers to check the authenticity of the goods they purchase. Information that is now written only on packaging or labels can additionally be integrated into the fabric of the products themselves.