The pharmaceutical industry continues to evolve, adopting new technologies and optimising resources to meet authentication and anticounterfeiting challenges.

In 2019, we decided to expand the scope of Tax Stamp News™ (as it was called back then) into the traceability realm, in order to reflect the fact that national tax stamp programmes were becoming increasingly integrated into production monitoring and track and trace systems.

Illicit trade in tobacco and vapor products has become a critical challenge facing policymakers, regulators, revenue authorities, and law enforcement. Once seen as a secondary issue compared to narcotics or counterfeit pharmaceuticals, illicit tobacco is now a clear and present threat for many countries across the globe.

Since 2005, SICPA has been a trailblazer in the tax stamp industry, consistently introducing innovations that have reshaped the market. These include the integration of unique identifiers into tax stamps, the use of cameras to activate stamps on production lines, and the application of security inks for direct marking.

The UK is home to world-class science, cutting-edge authentication technologies and a regulatory tradition that commands global respect. Yet, counterfeit medicines continue to infiltrate the country’s supply chains. Recent incidents reveal that even a country celebrated as a hub of anticounterfeiting innovation is struggling to keep ahead of the criminals.

Almost one year ago, Authentix completed the acquisition of the authentication operations of the Canadian group Meta Materials, specifically involving Nanotech Security Corp, for circa $10 million.

During the April 2025 Tax Stamp & Traceability Forum™, Linstrom Marangu, Health Tax Specialist from the African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF), chaired a panel discussion on the need to integrate excise systems into an overarching tax administration platform.

A new World Economic Forum report1 has identified generative AI watermarking as one of the top 10 emerging technologies of 2025.

Africa is a continent with a serious financing gap. According to the African Union, ‘Africa’s sustainable financing gap until 2030 is about $1.6 trillion,’ and ‘the continent needs additional financing of about $194 billion annually to achieve its Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. This financing gap is equivalent to 7% of Africa’s GDP’.

In time for World Anticounterfeiting Day, the US-based resale platform StockX has released its second annual Brand Protection & Customer Trust Report, showcasing the company's significant advancements in verification, fraud prevention, and anti-counterfeiting measures throughout 2024.