NFC-enabled smart packaging allows instant authentication of medicine with a simple tap of a smartphone, no app required. Giving patients, pharmacists, and regulatory authorities confidence in the products’ authenticity.

For more than 50 years, IFA Celtics has been one of Mexico’s largest pharmaceutical manufacturers, dedicated to enhancing lives through trusted, high-quality medicines. Every product is developed to meet the highest safety and efficacy standards, supporting healthcare professionals and their patients.

In collaboration with ForgeStop Technology Corp., a U.S. company that specializes in connected product technology, IFA Celtics recently introduced smart, NFC-based packaging at commercial scale. This technology will be used to uniquely identify and prevent the counterfeiting of millions of pharma packages in Mexico and Latin America.

The solution is powered by ForgeStop’s smart product and authentication platform and deployed in close partnership with EM Microelectronic and Tageos. It features Tageos’ EOS-920 inlays equipped with EM Microelectronic’s em|link ICs (EM4332), being ideally suited and designed for authentication and anti-counterfeiting applications. These high-performance NFC inlays comply with NFC Forum Type 2 and ISO/IEC 14443-A standards, supporting dynamic web authentication via one-time passwords carried by an encrypted secure digital identifier.

With a simple tap of an NFC-enabled device such as a smartphone or tablet on a drug package, the chip generates a unique web link for instant verification - providing immediate proof of product authenticity within seconds. This solution offers security, performance, and sustainability in a compact format. It enables end-to-end transparency, allowing every product to be tracked from manufacturer to patient, and ensures consumers and patients receive authentic, trusted medicines.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that one in ten medical products in low- and middle-income countries is counterfeit or substandard. Similarly, Mexico faces significant risks from counterfeit and falsified pharmaceutical products distributed through unauthorized channels. By introducing smart pharmaceutical authentication technology, IFA Celtic is taking a leadership role in ensuring the safety and compliance of medicine throughout Mexico and beyond.

This rollout will authenticate millions of pharma products, safeguarding both patients and supply chains. Plans are in place to integrate regulatory traceability and forthcoming standards for digital product passports and serialization compliance in due course.

“This solution shows how connected packaging can directly protect patients.” said Terry Katz, CEO of ForgeStop. “Every medicine pack has its own secure and unclonable identity, preventing counterfeits while improving traceability and patient trust.”

In the face of the ongoing threat that counterfeit medicines pose to human lives worldwide, this collaboration demonstrates the power and high potential of NFC-enabled smart solutions to protect patients directly and transform the way medicines are verified, tracked, and trusted. And it also further confirms the capabilities and possibilities of RFID and NFC technology.