PharmaSecure announced this week a $3.9 million investment round led by ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt's Innovation Endeavors. Other investors included Gray Ghost Ventures, Healthtech Capital and the TEEC Angel Fund. Healthtech Capital lead a $200,000 investment round for PharmaSecure in September.

In a post for MobiHealthNews in May, Healthtech founder Don Ross singled out Eric Schmidt when writing about health tech as the next big VC opportunity, writing that "at the recent J.P. Morgan Annual Healthcare Conference in San Francisco... panelists included Eric Schmidt, Google’s then-CEO, and other technologists not typically associated with health care."

PharmaSecure uses SMS to verify a prescription drug’s authenticity, using a unique code and phone number printed on a pill bottle’s label. One of the startup’s competitors is Sproxil, which partnered with GlaxoSmithKline in May.

The funds will be used to create new applications in response to a mandate from India’s government that all exported drugs have unique barcodes and serial numbers by July 2012. According to the company, 65 million pharmaceutical packages have been printed in India since the company started operations there in 2009, with 1.5 billion packages expected to be exported over the next year.

Innovation Endeavors’ Dror Berman stated in a press release that “we’ve invested in PharmaSecure because they are executing a game-changing approach to combating counterfeit drugs that holds huge potential for improving the safety and security of pharmaceutical products throughout the world.”

“India is leading the way in the global fight against counterfeit drugs. We are proud to have had a hand in creating applications like SMS authentication that put the power of protection against dangerous medicine literally in people’s hands,” stated PharmaSecure co-founder and CEO Nathan Sigworth in a press release. “We are investing in more applications that can ride on the mandated serialization to increase the reach and distribution of our clients' products and better health for their consumers. With the tradition of innovation that comes with this investment we expect the regulatory requirements to provide a creative opportunity for us and our clients."

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Read the press release below.

PRESS RELEASE -- PharmaSecure Inc, a pioneer in pharmaceutical authentication technology, closed today on a $3.9 million investment from Eric Schmidt's Innovation Endeavors, Gray Ghost Ventures, Healthtech Capital and the TEEC Angel Fund. The investments will be used to create new applications to respond to the Government of India’s drug serialization requirements that go into effect next year.

This year, the Directorate General of Foreign Trade of India mandated that all drugs exported from India must have unique serial numbers and barcodes by July 2012. India’s exports of pharmaceuticals are expected to reach $8 billion in 2012.

Since launching its India operations in 2009, PharmaSecure has printed over65 million pharmaceutical packages with unique ID codes that allow consumer authentication by SMS. The company has agreement in place to protect over 1.5 billion pharmaceutical packages in India and exported from India over the next year; a number that continues to grow.

According to Innovation Endeavors’ Dror Berman, “We’ve invested in PharmaSecure because they are executing a game-changing approach to combating counterfeit drugs that holds huge potential for improving the safety and security of pharmaceutical products throughout the world.”

With the pharmaceutical industry experiencing substantial growth in emerging markets, the counterfeit drug industry has also grown to capture roughly $75 billion of the global drug market. These counterfeit drugs pose a major health threats that can results in death, illness and drug resistance among users. PharmaSecure guards against counterfeit drugs by printing on each bubble pack of pills a unique code and phone number so consumers can verify the drug’s authenticity with an SMS text message.

“India is leading the way in the global fight against counterfeit drugs. We are proud to have had a hand in creating applications like SMS authentication that put the power of protection against dangerous medicine literally in people’s hands,” said PharmaSecure co-founder and CEO Nathan Sigworth. “We are investing in more applications that can ride on the mandated serialization to increase the reach and distribution of our clients' products and better health for their consumers. With the tradition of innovation that comes with this investment we expect the regulatory requirements to provide a creative opportunity for us and our clients,”

PharmaSecure’s innovative, cost-effective method earned the company Fast Company’s designation as one of the “10 Most Innovative Companies in Health Care.”

ABOUT PHARMASECURE

PharmaSecure is a global innovator in drug authentication technologies and software, creating effective solutions to ensure consumers receive authentic medications from trusted pharmaceutical manufacturers in emerging markets. Founded in 2007, PharmaSecure is a fast-growing company offering services in the United States, Europe, India, Africa, and Southeast Asia. www.pharmasecure.com.