Unique and impossible to copy: Danish technology receives million-dollar investment to strengthen safety in pharmaceuticals

A new research and innovation project led by the company PUFIN-ID receives DKK 14.1 million from Innovation Fund Denmark to further develop and streamline an already strong, AI-based product identification that will protect patients against counterfeit medicines and strengthen traceability in the global pharmaceutical industry.

Every year, patients around the world receive medicines and medical devices they trust to be genuine. Yet authorities repeatedly discover counterfeit products that are almost indistinguishable from the originals. At the same time, the identification solutions used today were developed for logistics and inventory management, not for life-critical safety.

PUFIN-ID's O-KEY technology is based on a completely different principle. Instead of barcodes or QR codes, which can be copied, damaged or become unreadable, O-KEY applies a physical and unique signature directly to the product. The signature consists of thousands of microscopic characteristics and cannot be copied, not even by the manufacturer himself. The authenticity is verified instantly using artificial intelligence.

The project has the potential to significantly strengthen patient safety by making it possible to quickly and securely verify the authenticity of each individual product, while giving manufacturers and authorities better traceability and a faster opportunity to respond to errors or recalls.

With an investment of DKK 14.1 million from Innovation Fund Denmark, PUFIN-ID can now further develop and optimize a solution that is already in commercial use. The focus is on faster AI verification, biocompatible materials and scalability for high-volume production in clean production environments.

- O-KEY is already one of the strongest solutions on the market for product authentication. With this investment, we can take the technology further and optimize it for the pharmaceutical industry. This applies to both faster reading, medically approved materials and AI that meets the highest regulatory requirements, says Line Klit Olsen, CEO of PUFIN-ID.

The project is being carried out in collaboration with the University of Copenhagen and Novo Nordisk. It will demonstrate the technology in pharmaceutical production, achieve USP Class VI certification and establish a regulatory path towards the EU's requirement for unique product identification, UDI.

The collaboration includes:

• PUFIN-ID , commercial project manager and developer of the O-KEY platform
• University of Copenhagen , IP owner and responsible for materials chemistry
• Novo Nordisk , testing partner contributing validation in real production environments

Contact

Dre Vidal
Head of Marketing & Commercial Strategy, PUFIN-ID
dre@pufin.id

Facts

Innovation Fund Denmark´s investment: DKK 14.1 million.
Total budget: DKK 20.2 million.
Duration: 2 years
Official project title: Physical Unclonable Functions as Unique Device Identification for the Pharmaceutical Industry

About the partners

PUFIN ID
Danish technology company that develops secure, impossible-to-copy product identities for authentication and digitization. O-KEY is already used in several industries and is now being further developed to target medical products and regulatory requirements.

University of Copenhagen
The Department of Chemistry is an internationally leading research environment within supramolecular chemistry and advanced materials and is behind the patented technology behind O-KEY.

Novo Nordisk
Global pharmaceutical company headquartered in Denmark. As a test partner, Novo Nordisk contributes to the validation of the technology in pharmaceutical production environments.