Partners market global security ink solution

nkSure Technologies has established a global marketing partnership with Security Industries, a newly formed business unit of Merck KGaA of Darmstadt, Germany, to present a joint solution in the battle against the growing problem of counterfeit products, including pharmaceuticals.  

Security Industries, which combines the know-how and products of Merck KGaA’s Pigments and Liquid Crystals divisions, specializes in overt marking materials that are visible and immediately identify a product as real or fake. InkSure specializes in machine-readable covert security markings, which require specialized readers to detect embedded features that are invisible to the naked eye. When both technologies are combined, the result is a multi-tiered security feature with multiple authentication levels.

‘Merck’s Security Industries and InkSure each have distinctly different technologies that fit well together to offer a combined, double-barreled protection against counterfeiting,’ said Dr. Michael Weiden, manager of Security Industries. Yaron Meerfeld, CEO of InkSure Technologies, added ‘InkSure has access to the ticketing and brand protection industries, while Merck has customers in the banknotes, pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries. Our cooperation will enable each company to reach a wider customer base, while providing our respective customers a broader array of authentication solutions.’

While Security Industries is a new business unit, Merck KGaA has been producing anti-counterfeiting materials for many years. For example, Merck’s pigments can be found on many banknotes around the world. The new business unit has assembled a team made up of security experts from Merck’s Pigments and Liquid Crystals divisions in Germany, the U.S. and the U.K. They will commence marketing of their specialized security products immediately through Merck companies around the world.