New technology can identify counterfeit drugs in minutes (1)
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A leading UK expert in analysing pharmaceutical compounds has demonstrated that U.S.-based technology can identify fake medicines in minutes.
Traditional technology, based on large, laboratory-based methods, takes hours and sometimes days of intensive work. Presenting his research at the British Pharmaceutical Conference (BPC) in Manchester, Professor Tony Moffat said: “This new technology allows analysis from a scraping rather than from a whole crushed tablet (which saves time and effort) and can identify counterfeits in real time - two important benefits over existing technology - that offers wholesalers, regulators and governments the opportunity to up-scale their efforts to detect fake drugs that are increasingly entering the supply chain.” Professor Moffat is Head of the Centre for Pharmaceutical Analysis at the University of London’s School of Pharmacy.
Identification of a fake drug by visual examination is almost impossible. Increasingly, international and national regulators, law enforcement personnel, pharmaceutical companies and wholesalers are looking for ways of reducing counterfeits entering the supply chain. Recent examples of counterfeits entering the UK supply chain include Plavix (to prevent blood clotting), Casodex (for prostate cancer) and Zyprexa (for psychosis).