中文Schreiner MediPharm has developed a new multifunctional label for pens and autoinjectors that combines analog and digital security features to help pharmaceutical manufacturers protect GLP-1 drugs against counterfeiting. With demand for GLP-1 therapies used to treat Type 2 diabetes and obesity at record levels, the products have become an increasingly attractive target for counterfeiters, even as requirements for safe, user-friendly delivery devices continue to grow. The label is designed to strengthen both product and patient safety across the supply chain.
The label integrates analog and digital features to deliver multi-level authentication. Overt elements such as ShiftSecure produce a positive-negative effect that changes with the viewing angle and can be checked by simple visual inspection. They are complemented by semi-covert features including microtext and InfraredSecure, and by digital functions such as covert, smartphone-readable printed codes and an integrated NFC chip. Together these allow authentication by every stakeholder from the pharmaceutical manufacturer to the end patient, and the digital features can also support geo-tracking to improve detection and monitoring of counterfeiting and gray-market activity.
An irreversible first-opening indication is central to tamper detection. Because the label covers part of the pen cap, any attempt to open the device becomes permanently visible, and that evidence can optionally be delivered digitally via NFC and a smartphone. The design prevents undetected recapping and the illegal reuse of the label, while its construction also protects printed product information against abrasion. If someone attempts to remove the label, fragments of the printed layer remain behind, so the pen cannot be reused illicitly.
Beyond security, the label improves usability. Its extended surface area provides more room for product information, larger fonts and customised design, while the NFC chip enables digital services and interactive user support. Schreiner says the solution is tailored to each customer’s requirements and adds functions to existing pen and autoinjector platforms without re-engineering the device itself. Scalable production capacity and easy integration into high-speed labelling processes are intended to help manufacturers maintain reliable supply if GLP-1 demand continues to climb.
The launch arrives as regulators and brand owners push harder on pharmaceutical traceability and anti-counterfeiting, particularly for high-value, injectable therapies. For label converters, the development underscores where the value is migrating: from decoration alone toward secure, intelligent labels that carry authentication, track-and-trace and patient-engagement functions. Combining conventional security printing with NFC and smartphone-readable codes places converters at the intersection of print, electronics and pharma compliance.
Schreiner MediPharm’s move also reflects a wider trend in healthcare packaging, where the unit dose and the connected device are becoming the trust anchor for the entire product. As GLP-1 volumes scale globally, the ability to prove authenticity at every handoff — factory, distributor, pharmacy, patient — turns the humble label into a critical line of defence against falsified medicines.
Source: Labels & Labeling — “GLP-1 label fights counterfeiting” (24 September 2026).
The GLP-1 context is what makes this more than a routine security-label story. These therapies are high-value, chronically administered and globally distributed, which is precisely the profile that attracts sophisticated counterfeiting and diversion. By embedding both human-visible and machine-readable authentication in a single label, Schreiner reduces the infrastructure a pharma customer must bolt on separately. For label converters, the takeaway is that pharma security is becoming a high-value, high-complexity niche where print, electronics and compliance converge. The global anti-counterfeiting packaging market has been expanding for years, driven by regulation such as the EU Falsified Medicines Directive and by brand-owner anxiety over gray-market diversion, and injectable therapies sit at the expensive end of that risk curve. NFC-enabled labels also open a direct, permission-based channel to the patient, supporting adherence, reordering and adverse-event reporting in ways a plain label never could. That turns the converter from a commodity supplier into a regulated-components partner, with correspondingly higher margins and stickier relationships. The irreversible first-opening indicator is especially shrewd: it converts a physical tamper event into a permanent, optionally digital record, closing a loophole that pure overt security printing cannot address. As more biologics and weight-management drugs move to autoinjector delivery, expect secure, connected labels like this to become a default specification rather than a premium option.
The commercial opportunity for converters sits in the intersection of print, electronics and compliance, a niche that is difficult for generalists to enter and therefore well paid for those who can. Secure, connected labels for injectables require clean-room-compatible converting, precise NFC insertion and validation against pharmaceutical quality systems — capabilities that build switching costs and recurring volume as therapies scale. The GLP-1 wave specifically has created a step-change in demand: these are chronic, high-volume, high-value products distributed globally, exactly the profile where counterfeiting and diversion losses are largest. Regulators and brand owners are therefore willing to pay for layered security rather than treat it as optional. Schreiner’s combination of overt, covert and digital features in one construct also reduces the integration burden on the device maker, who would otherwise source separate components. As more biologics and weight-management drugs migrate to autoinjector and pen delivery, expect connected anti-counterfeit labels to move from premium differentiator to default specification, pulling a steady stream of high-margin converting work toward suppliers that can deliver both the print and the electronics.
