The U.S. FDA has approved SECURtracers under the category of a ‘physical-chemical’ identifier to establish the authenticity of drugs.  The FDA is justifiably concerned over counterfeit products.

SECURtracers particles of ethyl cellulose range from 100 to 200 microns in size and have up to twelve characters embedded on each particle that can be detected using UV black light and then are viewed microscopically.  Messaging on the particles can be customized with micro-engraving of digits or numerals of up to 10 microns in size. 

According to the Federal Register 89:111 issued Friday June 7, 2024 (page 48507) ethyl cellulose is approved as a matrix scaffolding for SECURtracers for use in animal feeds at an addition rate of no more than 0.09 grams per metric ton of feed (~0.1 ppm). The approval was in response to a Food Additive Petition submitted by Micro-Tracers, Inc.

SECURtracers were developed for pharmaceutical additives to establish authenticity and would be used to code feed products such as enzymes, yeast prebiotics, coccidiostats, complexed minerals and vitamins as authentic. This will be useful in protecting patent and distribution rights, in detecting product substitution and in servicing customer complaints.

Micro-Tracers,Inc. believes this FDA approval will lead to the use of  SECURtracer to code human drug products including tablets and capsules as authentic in order to distinguish from counterfeit products that kill as many as one million unwitting patients worldwide each year.

The SECURtracer technology complements the existing range of iron-particle based Micro-tracers impregnated with a dye that can be used to ascertain qualitative or semi-quantitative addition of additives to mixed feeds.

Further information can be obtained from the Micro-Tracers website by clicking on to the Company logo on the right side of the welcome page.