While the global economic impacts of counterfeiting are costly, the human toll is staggering. Counterfeit drugs kill an estimated one million people every year. Counterfeit agricultural inputs hinder productivity and keep smallholder farmers in poverty, in effect decreasing food security and potentially worsening famines. Weak, uneven regulation and oversight have allowed this fraudulent market to develop while consumers absorb the cost. Without effective, universally applied certification tools, transnational supply chain corruption continues to grow at an alarming rate.
mPedigree’s core innovation is a unique product identification marker that consumers use to determine authenticity. They simply scratch off the label and evaluate a code within seconds using a mobile phone camera or text message. A rich overlay of software tools and sensor technologies create full supply chain traceability and visibility, risk management, and predictive analytics. Empowered consumers in Africa, South Asia, and the Middle East know immediately if they have counterfeit goods—not after they’ve entered diabetic shock or have seen crops fail. Regulators have embraced the technology and industry sees that product integrity and supply chain analytics correlate with strong sales. While graft and corruption wane, consumer confidence in the marketplace grows.
Both government and industry actors have great incentive to stamp out counterfeiting—mPedigree has formed partnerships in both the public and private sectors. Nigeria now requires labeling on all anti-malarial and antibiotic medicines. Kenya requires labeling on all seed packages for smallholder farmers. The metadata from those millions of authentications help corporations spot counterfeiting trends and supply chain dysfunction. Beyond mobile technology, mPedigree deploys sensors and machine learning to predict counterfeiting before it occurs and measures its environmental impact. mPedigree’s work is unified by a simple grand vision: a marketplace powered by verification and trust.
At least 20 percent of drugs sold at retail in Africa are either fake, substandard, or counterfeit.
mPedigree builds technology that stimulates trust among stakeholders by promoting transparency, benefits-sharing, and accountability.
Bright and Selorm are outspoken voices against corruption in Ghana and play leading roles at the IMANI Centre for Policy and Education, an anti-corruption think tank.
Drawing on their success with seeds in Kenya, mPedigree has partnered with COMESA to automate the same seed quality management effort across 19 African countries.
Consumers, empowered with verification tools and regulatory transparency, have confidence in the authenticity of the products on which they depend for their health and livelihoods
mPedigree’s tools are scaled through government regulatory platforms and strategic commercial partnerships.
President, mPedigree
Global Strategy Director, mPedigree
Bright Simons, President and Founder Bright Simons is the President of mPedigree, a social enterprise working on three continents with governments, Fortune 500 companies and activists to safeguard human health and food security using technology. A career inventor and innovator, his current projects include vaccine quality detection using novel organo-sensors. He is also a Board-level advisor, with recent appointments to the Microsoft Africa Advisory Council, the Lancet Commission on the Future of Health in Africa, the Center for Global Development's Study Group on Technology, the World Economic Forum's Africa Strategy Group, the Africa Population Health Research Center, and IC Publications, owner of the New African magazine. He is a WEF Young Global Leader, TED Fellow, Aspen Braddock Fellow, and the 2016 CNBC African Innovative Business Leader of the Year. In 2016, Fortune magazine named him one of the 50 World Greatest Leaders. Selorm Branttie, Global Strategy Director Selorm Branttie is the Global Strategist for mPedigree and has been at the forefront of mPedigree’s expansion into Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, and several countries in Africa. He works closely with stakeholders in industry and government to ensure safe consumption in such sensitive sectors as pharmaceuticals, agriculture, and automotive. Selorm was a founding member of IMANI Center for Policy and Education, a think tank that focuses on issues related to development and governance. His groundbreaking advocacy contributed to the organization being named among the world’s top 100 think tanks by the U.N. and in the top five of African research institutes by the University of Pennsylvania. As an academic at an innovative Ghanaian university, he served for many years preparing young professionals for career success in management, IT, and related fields. Selorm is an Aspen New Global Voices Fellow.
We are delighted to announce the five winners of the 2019 Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship, one week before we head into the 16th Annual Skoll World Forum: Crisis Text Line, Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator, mPedigree, mPharma, and Thorn. …
