STONY BROOK, N.Y., June 13, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via PRWEB - Applied DNA Sciences, Inc. (OTCQB: APDN), (Twitter: @APDN), a biotechnology firm that provides DNA-based authentication and security solutions and services, announced today that use of DNA authentication technology has been commended by the US House of Representatives in the funding bill for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), passed by the House, then published on June 12, 2014.
The NASA Authorization Act of 2014 (H.R. 4412) follows the path first dictated for the Department of Defense in its 2012 funding bill, requiring suppliers to bring online anti-counterfeiting systems. Clauses in the NASA bill follow closely the intent of the anti-counterfeiting language in Section 818 of the Defense Department funding law, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012.
Like the Defense Department Bill, suppliers are liable for costs of rework and remediation if it is found that they supplied counterfeit parts to the Agency.
In one section of the bill, the House commends NASA, saying, "The Committee...is encouraged by NASA's proactive efforts to mitigate counterfeit electronic part intrusion into the supply chain, including efforts at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to utilize deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) authentication marking on items which have been determined to be at high risk for counterfeiting."
As announced publicly in this space on May 9, NASA's JPL has received training by APDN on DNA authentication as part of its effort to assess the latest ideas and technologies related to counterfeit risk mitigation.
It is the second recent instance of an explicit mention by Congress citing DNA marking as an example of ongoing anti-counterfeiting technology. In May, the House called on the Department Of Defense to report on its anti-counterfeiting efforts, including DNA marking by the Defense Logistics Agency.
The Senate version of the NASA Authorization Act differs from that passed by the House. The versions will be reconciled later this year.
APDN company officials pointed out that the spread of strict anti-counterfeiting legislation to NASA can only add to the growing impetus to protect the supply chain against the counterfeit crisis, and underlined the urgency of the adoption of anti-counterfeiting solutions.
Dr. James A. Hayward, President and CEO of Applied DNA Sciences stated: "We are encouraged by the steady reference to DNA marking by our federal legislators and within federal agencies. This is truly a technology with the power to protect American assets and American lives."
About Applied DNA Sciences
APDN is a provider of botanical-DNA based security and authentication solutions and services that can help protect products, brands, entire supply chains, and intellectual property of companies, governments and consumers from theft, counterfeiting, fraud and diversion. SigNature® DNA describes the uncopyable marker that is at the heart of all of our security and authentication solutions. SigNature DNA is at the core of a family of products such as DNAnet®, our anti-theft product, SigNature® T, targeted toward textiles, and digitalDNA®, providing powerful track and trace. All provide a forensic chain of evidence and can be used to prosecute perpetrators.
The statements made by APDN may be forward-looking in nature. Forward-looking statements describe APDN's future plans, projections, strategies and expectations, and are based on assumptions and involve a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the control of APDN. Actual results could differ materially from those projected due to our short operating history, limited financial resources, limited market acceptance, market competition and various other factors detailed from time to time in APDN's SEC reports and filings, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K filed on December 20, 2013 (amended on May 1, 2014) and our subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q/A (for the quarterly period ended December 31, 2013) and Form 10-Q. APDN undertakes no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements to reflect new information, events or circumstances after the date hereof to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.
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Applied DNA Sciences Mitchell Miller +1 (631) 240-8818
