Top 10 Global Pharmaceutical Manufacturer Sets New Standard for Product Integrity With NanoGuardian

SKOKIE, IL--(Marketwire - Feb 13, 2012) - NanoGuardian™, a division of NanoInk®, Inc. that delivers on-dose brand protection solutions to fight illegal diversion and counterfeiting, announced today that it signed a multi-year agreement with a Top 10 global pharmaceutical company to supply its On-Dose NanoEncryption™ technology and Closed-Loop Protection™ market monitoring program to help ensure the safety and integrity of the company's products. The pharmaceutical company has decided it best to remain unnamed at the moment and thereby keep the use of the robust NanoEncryption technology confidential to maximize the chance of catching downstream supply chain members who are dispensing counterfeit and illegally diverted versions of its products.

NanoGuardian's NanoEncryption technology is the only on-dose, multi-layered, brand protection solution that enables pharmaceutical manufacturers to authenticate and trace every single dose, from plant-to-patient. NanoGuardian's Closed-Loop Protection Program combines the on-dose authentication and tracing benefits of NanoEncryption technology with a proactive supply chain auditing program to identify counterfeit or illegally-diverted pharmaceuticals entering the global supply chain as early as possible.

"While pharmaceutical manufacturers have done a great job securing the packaging of medications, illegally diverted and counterfeited drugs are often repackaged before they reach the patient, necessitating the need for on-dose security," said Dean Hart, chief commercial officer of NanoGuardian. "We are extremely pleased a leading, global pharmaceutical company has made the decision to protect its key products at the dose level with NanoGuardian's NanoEncryption technology. Through their leadership, we are moving closer to ensuring the integrity of the global pharmaceutical supply chain and protecting the patients that rely on these medications every day for their health and well-being."

"With this move, one company has stepped forward to increase patient safety with an additional, heightened level of security. I am certain that this step will lead to a new standard which other pharmaceutical companies will surely follow," said Dr. John Glover, a pharmaceutical security expert and co-founder of the Pharmaceutical Security Institute. "This decision recognizes that package security alone will not provide the level of patient safety necessary in today's high-tech, international trading environment. On-dose security is a critical component in ensuring product authenticity. This decision will lead to a new standard of product security."

Dr. John Glover is a pharmaceutical security expert with a distinguished career spanning more than 35 years with the FBI, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, the Pharmaceutical Security Institute and the U.S. State Department. Today, Dr. Glover serves as president of John Glover Consulting, Inc., which provides consulting services to a very select number of prominent corporate and non-governmental entities. Dr. Glover is also the chair of NanoGuardian's Security Advisory Board.

NanoGuardian fights both counterfeiting and illegal diversion with a single technology that can be used to protect capsules, tablets, vial caps, and single-use syringes providing a layered security of overt, covert, and forensic features. The overt and covert security features allow dose-level authentication at any point in the supply chain, while the forensic and nano-scale NanoCodes provide comprehensive tracing information on each and every dose. NanoGuardian's technology provides a strong benefit over other on-dose technologies given that NanoGuardian's security features are implemented with no additional material or chemicals being added to the medication.

NanoGuardian's Closed-Loop Protection market monitoring program works hand-in-hand with NanoEncryption technology to provide manufacturers an early warning system in the detection of counterfeit and diverted product. Through random audits at retail pharmacies, NanoGuardian's Closed-Loop Protection program can proactively detect counterfeit and diverted product, providing manufacturers with early detection of problems and mitigating risk to brands, companies and patients.

As evidence of the rapidly growing problem of counterfeit pharmaceuticals, a recent report from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement noted that the domestic value of counterfeit pharmaceutical seizures in fiscal year 2011 rose by more than $11 million, an increase of almost 200 percent. The implications for victims of counterfeit drugs are extremely serious, often resulting in unexpected side effects, severe allergic reactions and even death.

About NanoGuardian
NanoGuardian™, a division of NanoInk®, Inc., focuses exclusively on delivering brand protection solutions to fight illegal diversion and counterfeiting. Anchored by NanoInk's novel NanoEncryption™ technology, NanoGuardian enables manufacturers to authenticate and trace the integrity of their products across the supply chain. More information about NanoGuardian is available at www.nanoguardian.net.

NanoInk, NanoGuardian, NanoEncryption and the NanoGuardian logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of NanoInk, Inc.