The start-up company Novalia has used conductive liquid inks, such as carbon or silver, to produce a circuit that adds functionality to packaging. The ink is easily coated on flexible plastics to create circuits, which allows the flow of the current.

The 'smart' packaging market is being driven by the need for new clinical trial compliance and brand protection measures. The demand for new developments within the pharmaceutical industry opens up possibilities for this circuit technology to uses in anti-counterfeiting, brand protection and pharmaceutical compliance.

"One can add value to packaging by including printing electronics in the same process as producing the packaging," Nick Stone, who claims ownership of the intellectual property on the technology, told In-PharmaTechnologist.com.

The tamper monitoring system works as a powered circuit around the package. If the pack is tampered with it will cause a break in the circuit, making it clear that it has been interfered with.

Stone has teamed up with patent attorneys Venner Shipley, one of the leader firms of European patent and trademark attorneys, to make sure that his developments are fully protected by patents.

He expects the technology to become commercially available within six to 12 months. He launched the firm two years ago and has an office and laboratory at Cambridge science Park.

Stone is currently undertaking research on organic semiconductors, a material whose electrical conductivity is midway between that of insulating compounds and that of typical metals, to be used in disposable medical applications.