Young Ghanaian entrepreneur, Bright Simons, has made the MIT Technology Review 35 Innovators under 35 list for 2013 for his innovation which enables people to determine whether their medicine is genuine, using text message technology.
Bright’s mPedigree Network has developed system where a a code is printed on a product [or medicine pack] and you can send a free text message and get a reply in a few seconds verifying a is authentic. In addition, distributors and other middlemen can check the codes to verify that the supply has not been compromised.
His innovation has helped a pharmaceutical company to detect pilfering at a warehouse. It is helping to fight counterfeiters who could have put thousands of patients at risk. The system currently is being used in Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, India Uganda, Tanzania, South Africa, and Bangladesh.
Bright developed the idea initially, after studying astrophysics at Durham University in the U.K., to help African farmers sell their organic produce.
The MIT Technology Review has honored young innovators whose inventions and research it finds most exciting since 1999. The TR35 is a list of technologists and scientists, all under the age of 35, with work–spanning medicine, computing, communications, electronics, nanotechnology, and more–changing our world.