Based on its recent analysis of the product authentication market, Frost & Sullivan has recognized TruTag Technologies, Inc. (TruTag) with the 2017 North American Frost & Sullivan Award for Technology Innovation. TruTag’s silicon dioxide particle-based microtags, known as TruTags, enable customers to authenticate, identify, and track their products along the entire length of a supply chain by generating an optical signature.

The microtags can be applied in a variety of industries, including healthcare, food and beverage, consumer goods, and electronics to mitigate the risks of counterfeiting, product diversion, quality incidents and product recalls.

Silicon dioxide is affirmed by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS), making it fit for human consumption. The edibility and convertibility of TruTags enhance their value in the healthcare industry, as they can be used directly on pharmaceuticals. Researchers are exploring the use of silicon dioxide particles in new applications such as the controlled release of drugs. Porous silicon dioxide particles are considered ideal for in-vivo drug delivery because they are both biocompatible and biodegradable, and the particle porosity may be precision-made for storage and delivery of the drug. They are gaining traction in the chemicals industry as well, as their ability to withstand temperatures of nearly 1,000 degrees Celsius allows them to be mixed into a coating or polymer/plastic.

TruTag etches silicon dioxide particles in batches to create unique combinations of nano-pores of customizable shape and depth for each customer and industry. The nano-pores reflect light at discrete, selected wavelengths that are authenticated by the company’s portable readers; therefore, each microtag possesses an optical signature that is unique, identifiable, and extremely secure.

“The microtags’ spectral codes provide information at the product level, as well as the country, batch, and distributor levels,” says Frost & Sullivan’s senior research analyst Aniruddha Roy. “With the help of the tags, customers can collect information like dosage, manufacturing site, authorized distribution channel, lot number, drug package insert, and related safety information.”

TruTag’s technology is highly scalable and can meet diverse customer requirements. The company’s new manufacturing plant has high-volume, automated production capabilities that have increased capacity more than 50-fold in recent years This production facility, which manufactures microtags for the pharmaceutical and food industries, is current good manufacturing practices (cGMP)-compliant and is the world’s largest cGMP precision nano-porous silica production plant.

“TruTag is a vertically integrated company that has complete control over raw material selection, particularly the quality and purity of the materials, from the product development stage through deployment,” notes Roy. “The company invests heavily in R&D and fosters close relations with various end user industries. It signed a strategic partnership with PT Carsurin, an Indonesia-based inspection and testing company, for enhancing its supply chain security offerings. TruTag also recently entered into a strategic relationship with IRIS Corporation Bhd, a Malaysia-based provider of digital identity and smart ID solutions, for leveraging TruTag’s technology in a variety of products.

“In another significant move, TruTag has partnered with US-based Spinnaker Biosciences to supply precisely engineered, nano-porous silica particles for sustained-release drug delivery.”

Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to the company that has demonstrated uniqueness in developing and leveraging new technologies, which significantly impacts both the functionality and the customer value of the new products and applications. The award lauds the high R&D spend towards innovation, its relevance to the industry, and the positive impact on brand perception.