There are a great variety of ways in which a suspicious product might end up in Merck's special labs for analysis. "We get information from the police and customs agents, but also from pharmacies, doctors, and patients themselves," says Maack. “We also carry out our own research or get tips from other companies.”

Corporate Security therefore relies to a great extent on international cooperation with as many partners as possible. Customs officers in the U.S., for example, receive training as do Merck's own sales personnel in various countries. "Cooperative relationships externally and internally are hugely important for us," says Maack, a former police detective. When it comes to raising awareness of questionable circumstances among partners and the actual handling of cases that arise, Merck Corporate Security primarily acts as an information and case manager, which liaises between all the participants and the external partners.

In the war against counterfeits, Merck maintains cooperative relationships based on trust and dependability, not just with partners from government agencies and the medical community but also with other market participants. The company belongs to a comprehensive network of 25 leading pharmaceutical firms with their own R&D departments that mutually support one another in the global struggle against the criminal machinations of drug counterfeiters.

Illegal pharmaceutical counterfeits know practically no bounds: "The criminals imitate anything they can make money with," says Schewitz. The methods and types of analysis employed by the Merck detectives in the lab are therefore correspondingly numerous and diverse. For example, drugs and packaging are checked to determine whether they have the safety features that were incorporated during manufacturing. "We try to use various methods to give a tablet or a product a sort of fingerprint made up of multiple features," explains security expert Maack.

The examination of the actual drugs occurs in three laboratories that belong to the Pharmaceutical Analysis department in Darmstadt. The material sent for analysis is put in "evidence bags" developed by Corporate Security to document a solid chain of evidence. On reaching the lab, the material is examined using a combination of high performance liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry or near-infrared spectroscopy.

"We don't just analyze; we also deliver an interpretation of the results at the same time," says Gerhard Keller. At the moment, Keller, a chemical lab technician, is working with the high performance liquid chromatograph and enthusiastically explaining the potential of the machine. For example, pressures of up to 1,200 bar make it possible to perform the analysis up to ten times faster than with conventional chromatographs.

A great deal of experience is still required to make the samples give up their secrets, however. Even with modern analytical technology, the hunt for counterfeit drugs is still real detective work — from the initial investigation to the laboratory analysis. "Many of the cases we've worked on clearly show that we're confronting globally operating and well-organized criminal groups — a challenge we are addressing with meticulous investigative work and efficient internal processes," sums up Maack.