mPedigree

mPedigree is the global leader in the use of mobile and web technologies in securing products against faking, counterfeiting and diversion. mPedigree refers both to a mobile telephony shortcode platform that interconnects GSM mobile networks in a number of African and Asian countries to a central registry wherein pedigree information of product brands belonging to participant manufacturers are stored, as well as the organisation that was founded in 2007 to manage and promote this registry to organisations and governments in Africa and other parts of the world. The latter is named the mPedigree Network. In December 2015, the mPedigree Network rebranded to 'mPedigree', and begun to trade under that name and a new logo, based on a knight-of-chess motif. In November 2008, the Nigerian National Agency for Drug Administration & Control (NAFDAC) reported to an industry publication that its Technical Committee was evaluating the security credentials of the mPedigree system for a possible roll-out in that country. NAFDAC and the Nigerian pharmaceutical companies formed a consortium in June 2009 to roll the service out for all medicines in Nigeria. By 2014, NAFDAC had renamed this initiative as MAS (Mobile Authentication Service), involving multiple partners, including mPedigree. In 2011, the Kenyan drug safety regulator announced its support for the mobile telephony anti-counterfeiting system deployed in that country by mPedigree. In 2017, the Kenyan agricultural regulator, KEPHIS, announced a partnership with mPedigree to enable the verification of seed quality using mobile phone technologies.