How does sproxil resolve issues around trade of counterfeit drugs?

Sproxil’s Mobile Product Authentication™ (MPA™) solution allows consumers to verify

that the product they are buying is genuine, by using a mobile phone and a simple, free
text message. The company uses a scratch card method, similar to that used for
replenishing mobile talk-time, to allow users to reveal a one-time-use code on drugs and
text the code to a “911 for fake drugs” number which is identical on all mobile networks
within a country. A response is dispatched from Sproxil’s servers, indicating whether the
drug is genuine or fake. If a fake product is found, a consumer is given a hotline number
to call in order to report the fake product, so the issue can be directed to the appropriate
authorities. Benefits of the solution According to the World Health Organization (WHO),
up to 30 percent of drugs sold in developing nations are counterfeit, with the counterfeit
drug market estimated at $200 billion by the World Customs Organization (WCO). In
addition, up to 50 percent of some medicines in specific developing countries, including
Ghana and Pakistan, are substandard. These substandard drugs – which do not have
the correct potency of the legitimate drug – have led to a significant healthcare crisis,
both in terms of number of deaths (700,000 deaths from fake malaria and TB drugs
alone) and increased drug resistance in treating diseases, which will become an issue
in the longer term. With the counterfeit drug market on the rise in Africa and elsewhere,
Sproxil developed a simple, efficient and cost-effective way for customers to verify the
authenticity of medication prior to purchasing them. Given the prevalence of mobile
technology throughout the world, it made sense to use a technology that was already in
every customer’s pocket. Through drug authentication, consumers can avoid
purchasing counterfeit medication, while anonymously and passively providing key
intelligence to law enforcement agencies regarding the location of fake drugs, anytime
authentications fail repeatedly. This improves consumers’ overall health and quality of
life. In most developing nations, government serves as the primary health care provider,
and unknowingly pays for medication that could be counterfeit. Patients return to
hospitals, incurring more costs for illnesses that should be cured once but are instead
paid for over and over again. With just a text message, Sproxil solves this problem.
Sproxil’s solution also provides specific benefits to manufacturers, telecom networks,
government and law enforcement and foreign donors.

Compare this approach with the one we have in Bangladesh?

Equity in health is one of the central pillars for promoting UHC. According to the
International Society for Equity in Health, “Equity is the absence of systematic and
potentially remediable differences in one or more aspects of health across populations
or population groups defined socially, economically, demographically, or
geographically”. Unfortunately, out of pocket (OOP) contributions to health expenditure,
one of the most inequitable sources of healthcare financing, in Bangladesh, are among
the highest in the world with 67%. Quality of care, another important dimension of UHC,
is highly questionable in the public sector. This encourages people to resort to private
sector healthcare, which is more expensive. Health expenditure in private health
facilities is almost exclusively from OOP payments (93%).
The review of Bangladesh’s Demographic and Health Survey 2014 reveals inequity in
most of the health indicators in terms of economic status, level of education, gender,
location (urban vs. rural), and geography (divisions). Among fertility and family planning
indicators, for example, marital age of first marriage is only 15.3 years in the lowest
income quintile versus 17.6 years in the highest (national average 16.1 years). Mean
ideal number of children is 2.4 among women with no education versus 2.0 among
those with secondary or higher level of education (national average 2.2). Contraceptive
prevalence rate (any method) is only 47.8% in Sylhet Division versus 69.8% in Rangpur
(national average 62.4%). Percentage of unmet needs for family planning is 17.7 in the
Sylhet Division versus 6.7 in Rangpur (national average 12.0).
Similar trends of inequity are observed in maternal and child health and nutrition
indicators as well. For example, infant mortality rate is 35 per 1000 live births among the
people of lowest income quintile, compared to only 14 among the highest income group.
Antenatal care (ANC) coverage rate is highly inequitable in terms of all types of
stratifications; for example, there are 14.7, 25.7, 37.6, and 37.8 percentage point
differences between urban vs. rural, Khulna division vs. Sylhet division, completing
secondary or higher education vs. no education, and highest vs. lowest income
quintiles, respectively.