Authentication Of Pharmaceutical Products

A method for authenticating a pharmaceutical product item, the pharmaceutical product item being associated with packaging having disposed thereon or therein coded data including a number of coded data portions, each coded data portion being indicative of an identity of the pharmaceutical product item and a part of a signature, the signature being a digital signature of at least part of the identity, the signature comprising a plurality of signature parts, the method comprising the steps of:

• receiving indicating data from a sensing device, the sensing device being responsive to sensing the coded data to generate indicating data at least partially indicative of:
• the identity of the pharmaceutical product item;
• the signature part;
• and
• a signature part identifier;
• determining, from the received identity and the received signature part identifier, a determined signature part;
• authenticating the pharmaceutical product item by comparing the received signature part and the determined signature part.