Self-medication is a consistently growing trend. Patients suffering from diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis or multiple sclerosis are increasingly using pens or autoinjectors, and ease and safety of handling these devices are particularly important to them. For pharmaceutical manufacturers, the protection of patients against counterfeit medications and supply chain security are additionally important criteria. Besides serialization, the EU Falsified Medicines Directive addresses tamper protection of secondary packaging, albeit without taking first-opening indication for primary containers or devices into account. The NFC-Label for autoinjectors from Schreiner MediPharm closes this risk-prone gap and indicates if the product is still originally sealed or has been opened before.

The smart Autoinjector-Label is both user-friendly and safe: It wraps around the autoinjector including the cap and has an integrated NFC chip that can easily be read using a smartphone. Before opening the cap for the first time, the patient checks whether the product is an original and receives a corresponding confirmation. Immediately after the cap and label have been opened and the NFC chip has been read again, a warning message appears. It indicates that the product has been opened before and alerts the user to a potential tampering attempt. Thus, the patient can easily and quickly check the integrity of his or her injection aid anywhere anytime—and above all, is assured of having received a safe drug.