An Expert View from Bob Tilling, vice president, global sales at Kallik.
Poet and playwright, Oscar Wilde, once popularised the proverb “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery…” - a statement that rings true for today’s ‘dupeculture’.
The sale of 'dupes' - products that look exactly like the brand-name items but at a much lower cost - are on the rise. From fashion and homeware, to pharmaceuticals and cosmetics, these items are rapidly making their way into consumers’ homes, sparking what's known as a 'dupeculture' craze.
A growing problem
Recentdatasuggests that the hashtag ‘#dupe’ has been viewed on TikTok over 4.3 billion times, and on Instagram 315K times - views that, inevitably, lead to purchases, as showcased in a recent survey which reported that85% of Gen Z’s believe social media impacts purchase decisions.
Fuelled by social media, and driven by socioeconomic factors like the pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis,dupeculturehas taken the world by storm and, in my opinion, has exacerbated the pharmaceutical counterfeit market.
Although the global trade of fake pharmaceuticals has long been a threat, the increase in onlinedupeproducts over the last three years has meant the challenge of combating counterfeit products is an even greater task to manage.
With thedupeand, subsequently, the counterfeit market growing at alarming rates, how can pharma companies - alongside packaging manufacturers and labelling and artwork specialists likeKallik- tackle this growing issue as influencers online continue to take to TikTok and other social media platforms to encourage eager consumers to shop more affordably?
Influenced by the influencer
As a phenomenon, ‘dupeculture’ has been around since2010, primarily focusing on the cosmetics industry.
Though it’s a term commonly used by influencers to reshare their latest high street fashion ‘hauls’, it’s only recently been associated with healthcare products, thanks to the growing presence of health and fitness influencers.
Much like the haul videos we see online, which subtly promote damaging fast fashion mindsets, health and fitness influencers - often without licenses or qualifications - are feeding viewersmisinformationabout medicine, diets and treatments, and encouraging consumers to turn todupeproducts under false pretenses.
Ozempic (semaglutide), a medication usually prescribed to treat diabetes, madeheadlinesin early 2023 for its popularity among celebrities and social media influencers as a solution to weight loss. While searches for Ozempic and Wegovy have grown steadily in favor, a new supplement called berberine has now entered theculturallexicon.
While not new, it’s been dubbed by TikTokers as ‘nature’s Ozempic’ or an ‘Ozempicdupe’, because it derives from a chemical commonly found in some plants that have some appetite-suppressant side effects. The data on itsefficacyis limited, according to experts, and berberine’s nicknames and assumptions have been regarded as ‘potentially dangerous’ and ‘misleading’, with fears that thedupe(berberine) may be chosen, unknowingly, instead of its tried and tested alternative, Ozempic.
As well as the social media influencers driving these misconceptions, cost is fuelling the trend. According tosources, a bottle of berberine in the USA costs between $15 to $40 for a month’s supply, whereas Ozempic - prescribed by doctors - can cost $1,000 or more for a shot.
While berberine is an example of the waydupecultureis misleading consumers, the problem worsens when the packaging of ‘dupes’ becomes so closely related to the original product.
Dupesvs counterfeits
Counterfeits anddupeproducts, although separate, are intrinsically linked.
Dupesare products that share similarities to a designer item but do not feature any copied logos or trademarked features. The production ofdupes, although ethically questionable at times, are legal.
Comparably, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) describes counterfeits, or fakes, as items that copy trademarked details and logos to pass themselves off as the real thing - these, on the other-hand, are illegal.
The two are often confused, with some experts having describeddupeculture“as shady and illegal as counterfeiting, but almost as open and in-your-face as cheap knockoffs.”
Even before the pandemic,Interpol’s Operation Pangea XIII, an initiative created to combat the rise in the counterfeit medical market, was said to have seized counterfeit virus interventions worth $14 million worldwide.
Since then, criminals have been able to take advantage of supply chain disruptions, changing regulations, the urgent global demand for products and, more recently, the desire to buy cheap thanks to the cost-of-living crisis.
They’ve also benefited from an online presence, much likedupeculture, establishing digital and ecommerce channels to distribute fake products to unsuspecting patients - a consumer base said to account for50%of all drug purchases, leading to a global market now worth approximately$200 billion.
Businesses operating in such a vast and lucrative market often have access to the funds to drive marketing, production, manufacturing and distribution of products that are so closely aligned with the original, yet pose serious health risks.
While convincing they may be, falsified medicines, hidden behind convincing packaging, could have a detrimental impact on the company behind the authentic product and, of course, the user. And, in an industry built on trust and robust reputation, if the safety of a patient is compromised, serious repercussions could occur.
So, how can pharmaceutical companies keep up and ensure that their authentic, regulated products are first to be picked up off the shelf?
Harnessing technology
Labelling plays a fundamental role in differentiating between a counterfeit and the original product. But, with such complex processes now in place, thanks to the scale of the criminal market, identifying fake products is becoming increasingly difficult.
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While regulatory changes like theEU’s Falsified Medicines Directive (FMD)have made a difference to slowing the growth of the counterfeit market, the growing complexity of supply chains - thanks to increased moving parts, geographies, limited visibility and demand for faster lead times - have created havoc for some anti-counterfeiting measures.
Though we’ve seen advancements in packaging, from watermarking techniques and the development of holograms, those supply chain complexities have given criminals ample opportunity to take advantage of any open channels.
For this reason, efforts to reduce fraudulent activities have largely focused on improving visibility across the lifecycle of a product’s creation. At Kallik, we’ve been working to tighten the process of creating, manufacturing, authenticating and distributing pharma products, with our labelling and artwork management software (LAM).
Automated LAM software offers businesses a significant level of traceability - a crucial factor in minimizing counterfeiting. The EU’s FMDrequirescomplete product traceability from manufacturing to decommissioning, and I truly believe that automated software is the only way to guarantee the effectiveness of this.
To avoid any ambiguity, and have complete traceability, there must be visibility right across the supply chain. A digitized label management system, offering an end-to-end solution, will provide users with a helicopter-view of the entire process - across manufacturer and provider, right through to distributor and the end user.
In order to identify which product may have been replicated by a counterfeit trader, and in what territory, the best software enables teams to access detailed audit trails of all actions - allowing them to make immediate, localized changes.
Speed is of the essence when taking action against the counterfeit market. While holographic and watermarking techniques work to stave off fake reproductions, the market is quick to catch on and most anti-counterfeiting measures have a short ‘shelf-life’ before needing to be re-evaluated.
For it to work as efficiently as possible though, labelling should be integrated into a business’ operations, rather than becoming an ‘add on’.
An integrated solution will allow a business to rapidly respond to change, as well as gaining actionable insights across the entire labelling lifecycle. It will also guarantee uniformity, assist in adhering to the most recent legal, regulatory, marketing and manufacturing standards in all aspects of packaging and labelling.
Similar to existing anti-counterfeiting techniques, there are other ways brands are working with LAM experts like us. We’ve seen giants of the pharmaceutical industry introduce anti-counterfeiting measures into the packaging of their products, including features where the design of a logo or product name has been altered in order to distinguish itself from fakes - while not being too obvious to counterfeit traders.
LAM software can help businesses make these changes almost instantly, across a range of products and territories. The system gives businesses the peace of mind that if a counterfeit trader spots a perceived weakness in the labelling, the software can do all the heavy lifting in real-time.
Future-proofing
While it’s likely that the problems associated with the counterfeit market may never go away, it’s important for businesses within the pharmaceutical industry to consider how technology can provide greater levels of autonomy, visibility and security.
The pharmaceutical industry hinges on the trust of its consumers, and with brand identity at the heart of this issue, it becomes a challenge about minimising risk to health and, consequently, reputation.
