Counterfeit insulin was endangering patients in rural areas. A scan-to-verify flow that works on any phone browser let pharmacists and patients confirm authenticity without special hardware.
MediCore, a pharmaceutical supplier, faced counterfeit insulin reaching patients in rural areas — a direct danger to health. The practical obstacle was that rural pharmacies had no special verification hardware.
By using a scan-to-verify flow that runs in any phone browser, MediCore onboarded 2,400 pharmacies, reached a 96% fake-detection rate on suspect products, increased patient-led verifications fivefold, and completed a regional rollout in four weeks.
MediCore (an illustrative composite) distributes temperature-sensitive medicines, including insulin, across urban and rural Pakistan through wholesalers and independent pharmacies. Rural distribution is long, fragmented, and hard to monitor.
Counterfeit and substandard insulin was entering the supply chain and reaching patients who had no way to tell it apart from genuine product. With insulin, a fake isn’t just a financial loss — it is a safety emergency.
Pharmacies wanted to do the right thing but had neither the tools nor a fast method to check what they were dispensing.
Tamper seals and batch numbers were copied or simply trusted without checking. Centralised track-and-trace systems assumed scanners and connectivity that rural pharmacies didn’t have. Verification hotlines were slow and rarely used.
Any solution that required special hardware or reliable infrastructure excluded exactly the places most at risk.
MediCore put a unique QR code on each pack, verifiable through any phone’s browser — no app, no dedicated scanner. A pharmacist or patient scans and gets an immediate authenticity result.
Because the only requirement was a phone, adoption reached small, remote pharmacies quickly. Patients could verify their own medicine, which both protected them and extended detection far beyond what MediCore’s field team could cover. The platform (Traciqo) logged verifications, helping MediCore see where suspect products surfaced.
The regional rollout was completed in four weeks, constrained more by outreach than by technology.
Meet the infrastructure that exists. A browser-based check reached places that scanner-based systems never could.
Let patients verify too. Putting verification in patients’ hands multiplied detection and protected the most vulnerable.
In healthcare, accessibility is the design constraint. The most secure system is useless where it can’t be used.
The hardest part of fighting counterfeit medicine isn’t detecting a fake — it’s putting detection within reach of the people who need it, where they are. By requiring nothing more than a phone, MediCore made verification possible in exactly the rural settings where counterfeits do the most harm. For public-health-critical products, reach matters as much as rigour: a check that everyone can run beats a stronger one that only a few can.
Authentication, digital warranty, and dynamic QR — in one platform.
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