BBC interviewed TrueMed CEO Jyrki Berg for their podcast series People Fixing the World. The episode explores how smartphones and emerging technology can be used to spot fake drugs.

Listen to the podcast to learn more.

Will you get vaccinated for COVID-19? Get vaccinated or not, it’s up to you to decide. What is likely not for you to decide is the fact that counterfeiters are going to make a profit benefiting from the COVID-19 pandemic during 2021.

We have already seen counterfeiters make a profit from the COVID-19 pandemic. Face masks, test kits, protective gloves, fake vaccines, miracle cures, etc. Why has COVID-19 been so profitable for counterfeiters? Since all COVID-19 related items are facing a huge demand across the world, it’s rather easy to tap into the “game” and deliver counterfeit products with high price tags and convincing appearances.

The same paradigm will continue with COVID-19 vaccines. Unfortunately, demand being so high that supply cannot satisfy the need for quite some time, it might take years for some to get their hands on the vaccine. Some people will purchase vaccines from a source that promises fast delivery, some from a source that promises cheap prices. This opens a profitable and easy way for the counterfeiters to step in. Counterfeiters are getting quicker, smarter, and are challenging the traditional protection mechanisms every day. Hence a new type of protection agility is required in the market to fight back and react faster to market changes. As with traditional medicines, despite all the protection mechanisms, there, unfortunately, are still ways to get into the distribution chain.

To fight back, on top of the traditional protection mechanisms we must adopt new ways of engaging and tracking counterfeits. We offer a solution that can be used to identify counterfeits, globally. We must provide a solution for the consumer to validate what they have purchased. Artificial intelligence provides a next-generation product protection method, a fast (real-time) tool against counterfeits. Using AI not only to detect counterfeits but also to track and trace them is the way of the future. With the latest AI technology, nothing needs to be added to the product or product package, as this is completely non-additive. This offers great savings for the brand and cuts out all the hassle codes and invisible inks introduce.

We have recently seen a lot of online pharmacies taken down due to them selling counterfeit medicines. Unfortunately, it’s relatively fast to set up a new online pharmacy. Getting closer to the source of the problem and removing physical counterfeit goods from the distribution chain is the ultimate cure.

What does the future of product protection technology have to offer? A massive disruption for the way products are going to be protected, that’s what.

I have been following the product protection market for quite some time now, seeing how companies build their brand and product protection strategies. Protecting products against counterfeits has been a priority for brands but it is foreseen that this is raising to be one of the top priorities in the future. But the question is, what is the best way to do it?

Currently product protection is always done in a way that requires something to be added to the product or product package at the factory. This “something” I refer to is usually a hologram, serialization, QR-code, RFID, NFC, invisible ink, glue or varnish, just to name a few.

These methods do work, but they are slow to react to growing and changing market needs. With traditional protection methods, E2E costs rise due to production line modifications needed for adding something to the product or product packaging and continue to rise due to cumbersome and slow analysis processes. Many times, protection is consisting of multiple different protection layers that again are increasing the product costs. These all are elements that new technology is starting to solve.

What would you think if…?

Nothing would need to be added to the product or product package, but you could still protect the product while not having to do any modifications to the production lines?

You could react to market changes in minutes, instead of months or even years?

Data from your original and counterfeit products would be collected automatically, globally? With an ability to see, analyse and version the counterfeits as well?

This all can be done today. AI based protection methods do not require anything to be added to the product or product packaging but can still detect originals from counterfeits. Not only can these methods detect an original from a counterfeit, but they can also read all the existing codes and markings at the same time.

As the market changes and current cost saving programs demand leaner approaches when it comes to product protection, counterfeiters are getting faster, smarter and defeating current protection methods with ease. I see a huge need for challenging the current modus operandi with something that can offer better accuracy, cost savings and most of all, the ability to react to global market changes in an instant.

For a market that is typically slow to change, these kind of technology disruptions offer huge advantages. It will obviously take some time to change current thinking, but perhaps with time the existing methods will start to realize the advantages new disruptive technology has to offer. With time a change is inevitable.

To do their share during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, three Finnish companies, Suominen Corporation, Screentec Oy and TrueMed Oy, joined forces to develop and start production of Finnish, high-quality respirators.

Finland, with no domestic face mask production at the time, had difficulties sourcing high-quality masks at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Suominen, a globally leading nonwovens producer, was one of the companies that promptly reacted to the difficult situation. In an ultra fast-tracked innovation process Suominen and its partners developed a novel nonwoven, FIBRELLA® Shield, suitable for use in the manufacturing of respirators. The innovative nonwoven, developed in only a few months, has passed the European Standard EN 14683:2019 Type II requirements in terms of filtration efficiency and pressure drop.

“FIBRELLA® Shield not only provides excellent protection, it is also comfortable and easy to breathe through,” says Suominen’s Category Manager Johanna Sirén.

At the same time that Suominen was developing the new material, Screentec Oy – a renowned producer of medical electrodes and human-machine interfaces for demanding environments – decided to start production of high-quality face masks at its Oulu works. After an exceptionally fast installation phase, the new production line was ready by late summer.

“The common aim, a fully domestic supply chain for high-quality face mask production, was a natural starting point for our cooperation with Suominen. The plan is that in the future we will mainly use Suominen’s FIBRELLA® Shield in our face masks,” says Screentec’s CEO Antti Tauriainen.

Suominen has been working with TrueMed Oy, an innovative Finnish start-up, already earlier. TrueMed has developed an AI and machine vision-based non-additive solution that is used to detect original and counterfeit medicines and medical products.

The aim of the cooperation between the three companies is to be able to confirm the authenticity of the masks and the nonwoven used in them – in this case, FIBRELLA® Shield – and thus to guarantee end-user safety. The cooperation also aims to produce important inventory information for the customer, for example, information about expiration days or how many masks that have been used.

“Determining if the product is genuine or a counterfeit is done through our mobile phone app, TrueMed® Scanner. We provide Suominen an identification process and mechanism that can detect the product authenticity on the fiber level of the nonwoven material. Suominen Intelligent Nonwovens^TM utilizes TrueMed’s proprietary AI and machine vision platform. At the same time, we can read all the necessary codes and markings on the product and it’s packaging,” explains TrueMed’s CEO Jyrki Berg.

“By combining the deep know-how of the three companies, we are able to offer our customers high-quality face masks with verifiable authenticity as well as the ability to follow the inventory data. In the future many of these kind of technical innovations, for example related to  the end-users safety, smart supply chain data, carbon footprint information and so on, can be taken into use with Suominen Intelligent Nonwovens ^TM. This very fast joint development project was also funded by Business Finland research and development funding,” says Suominen’s CTO, Markku Koivisto.

For more information, please contact

Markku Koivisto, CTO & SVP Europe, Suominen Corporation, +358 40 861 2852 markku.koivisto@suominencorp.com

Antti Tauriainen, CEO, Screentec Oy, tel. +358 44 556 5822, antti.tauriainen@screentec.com

Oskari Heikel, COO, TrueMed Oy, tel. + 358 50 591 6085, oskari.heikel@truemedinc.com

Suominen manufactures nonwovens as roll goods for wipes and other applications. Our vision is to be the frontrunner for nonwovens innovation and sustainability. The end products made of Suominen’s nonwovens, such as wet wipes, feminine care products and swabs, are present in people’s daily life worldwide. Suominen’s net sales in 2019 were EUR 411.4 million and we have nearly 700 professionals working in Europe and in the Americas. Suominen’s shares are listed on Nasdaq Helsinki. Read more at www.suominen.fi.

Screentec manufactures specialized medical products – from clinical measurements to diagnostics and therapy applications – answering the trends in biometric data gathering, personal protective equipment and user interfaces for harsh environments. Screentec focuses on the production of branded goods and on supporting their success through our in-house manufacturing and development operations. Located in Oulu, Finland, we employ more than 70 people. Screentec is privately owned. Read more at www.screentec.com

TrueMed is the world’s first non-additive product protection solution for instantly detecting counterfeit products, globally. Our mission is to save lives, societies, and revenues. TrueMed is also the first counterfeit detection solution that can identify counterfeit medicine packages, safety gear, pills and powders instantly by using proprietary Artificial Intelligence algorithms through a powerful software-based platform. TrueMed enables every mobile phone to be a powerful counterfeit scanner. TrueMed was founded in 2019 and is based in Helsinki, Finland and is also located in Palo Alto, California, US. Read more at www.truemedinc.com  

TrueMed has been selected by Suominen to pilot and deliver a new and innovative solution for protecting the new nonwoven FIBRELLA® Shield based face masks in a real-world setting. This method is a part of Suominen’s effort to develop new FIBRELLA® Shield based nonwoven facemasks in Finland.

TrueMed offers a totally unique AI based platform with highly advanced machine vision solution that is 100% non-additive. The solution is used to detect original & counterfeit products in any market, globally. TrueMed turns every smartphone to a powerful identification tool against counterfeits. With customer selected extensions, TrueMed can also be used as a powerful track and trace solution.

For more information contact@TrueMedinc.com

Due to recent push to keep people indoors across the world has led to the increase in e-commerce and other internet-based purchasing activities. Unfortunately, this has led to the new golden times for counterfeiters to take advantage of this new opportunity for a quick profit.

Crisis is typically increasing the demand on items that are necessary in a crisis. We have seen Customs and Border Protection catch counterfeits of COVID-19 related items, such as test kits and protective gear all over the world.

But honestly, this is just a tip of the iceberg. If we want to take a closer look at the past, with other crisis such as Ebola, where initially there was no medicine available to threat the infected patients, counterfeits worked hard to get versions of common medication into the legitimate supply chain as the demand rose. Once a workable vaccine was developed, counterfeits shifted to produce fake versions of these vaccines. A quick way to make a profit, but at the same time extremely harmful to the population.

Already now, with the COVID-19 crisis we have seen the counterfeits attack test kits, masks, hand sanitizers and other medical supplies, again for the quick profit, and again harmful for the population. While the whole world is trying to find a cure for COVID-19, likely the first attempt is to treat symptoms and related infections with current medicines or combinations of thereof. If successful, these already existing medicines will be facing an immediate counterfeit problem. Since the demand volume will be high, so will the profits for the counterfeiters.

Taking a step forward towards the ultimate COVID-19 medicine and/or vaccine, which demand will be extremely high, instant and global. The volume will be greater than ever seen before with any medicine. This will open an unseen “holy grail” for counterfeiters to attack, in all fronts, everywhere. Likely the first counterfeit attempts will be poor and can be identified with the naked eye but will improve fast to be very good copies of the originals, so good that even professionals will have a hard time detecting them. This will likely happen on all continents, unfortunately at the same time.

“To stop or slow down the counterfeit attack(s), new next generation technologies must be utilized to hold back the criminal wave profiting from the COVID-19 crisis” says Jyrki Berg, CEO of TrueMed.

Despite the world being in a major crisis, counterfeiters do not care about the health of the population or other impacts they are causing for societies. It is all about fast profits with small risk.

TrueMed, leading artificial intelligence based platform against counterfeits, announces Jyrki Berg as Chief Executive Officer.

TrueMed today announces the appointment of Jyrki Berg as Chief Executive Officer. Jyrki will replace Oskari Heikel, who will move to be the COO of TrueMed. Jyrki has extensive 23 year experience on global leadership positions in strategic commercial product driven growth environments as well as operative management positions.

“This is extremely positive move for TrueMed and we are delighted to welcome Jyrki on our growing team in his role as CEO of TrueMed” said Tuomas Kannas, Chairman of the Board, TrueMed.

Jyrki brings diverse background in the company strategic position, global commercialization, fast moving growth and technology industries including some key strategic product roles. “I am extremely excited to be heading TrueMed and to use my experience to drive growth strategy for the company” said Jyrki. “Importantly, I am committed to building on the work Oskari & co has done in the past with TrueMed to deliver exciting opportunities for our staff and superior solutions for our clients”

TrueMed is delivering market leading artificial intelligence based platform against counterfeit products. TrueMed is the first end-to-end counterfeit medicine detection service in your pocket, available all over the world. For more information, please visit truemed.io