Aimed at curbing counterfeits
Technically, the nation of nearly a billion people across the Pacific is still known as Communist China. In recent years, however, the country has made a number of moves to welcome Western investment and commerce to boost its economy. One thing hasn’t changed, though, and that is that China, with its immense population, remains fertile ground for deception and fraud through that multitude of business transactions. Any company that could aid in preventing and obliterating counterfeit practices would rapidly gain a foothold in China… and elsewhere.
Enter Applied DNA Sciences, Inc. (OTC:BB: APDN, Stock Forum), based out of Stony Brook, New York, a provider of DNA-based security solutions, which announced in the second week of January that it had signed a supply agreement with a major Asian international printing company. The unnamed company will use APDN Authentication Marks to protect its clients' products from counterfeiting and fraud. This agreement extends the reach of APDN's business for the first time beyond the U.S. and Europe. The deal could prove something of a bonanza for the company.
APDN claims to be the only company in the world that is making use of the complex codes embedded in botanical DNA as the ultimate solution to counterfeiting. APDN sells patented DNA security solutions to protect products, brands and intellectual property from counterfeiting and diversion.
The company’s flagship product, SigNature® DNA, uses the DNA from plants to mark and authenticate products in a unique manner that essentially cannot be copied. The company claims SigNature® DNA will not alter the quality of the product, or require major changes to the manufacturing process or logistic chain, is stable and persistent, instantly detectable with a handheld device, and can be forensically authenticated in the lab.
Not just China, but the whole world is awash with potential for fraud, one of the fastest growing financial crimes, threatening jobs and endangering public health and safety. The World Customs Organization estimated annual global trade in illegitimate goods at about US$600 billion (2004), a figure that is expected to double to $1.2 trillion by 2014, representing 5% to 7% of all worldwide trade.
The company’s stock traded January 12 for around 11 cents, in the middle of a trading range that hit its valley last February at 2.1 cents and climbed the following June to about 21 cents. News of the transaction with the unnamed Chinese company sent buyers back to the counter buying more than a million shares on the day of the announcement, giving the price a kick upwards of more than 8%. Here is a stock that bears watching as the product builds its markets around the world.
Disclosure:
The author, Peter Szafranski, has not been compensated nor does he own a position in the above mentioned company.
