Estimates are 30-50% of available medications are of low quality or counterfeit in countries with failed governance and conflict. These fake medications are a serious clinical problem and becoming a public health concern. Thirty-six distinct technologies have been described to prevent fake medicines but none meet the needs for point of care testing in low resource or conflict environments.

1. 11/12/2019 Ensuring Drug Quality – Innovations CZ
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Shedding light on your
medications!
The Problem
Estimates are 30-50% of available medications are of low quality or counterfeit in
countries with failed governance and conflict. These fake medications are a serious
clinical problem and becoming a public health concern. Thirty-six distinct technologies
have been described to prevent fake medicines but none meet the needs for point of
care testing in low resource or conflict environments.
A low-cost tool with high sensitivity and specificity that requires little training and uses
local available reagents is still needed
The Solution
We developed a point of care tool using properties of light spectroscopy and LED
technology to quickly determine authenticity and quality of medications.
Methodology

2. 11/12/2019 Ensuring Drug Quality – Innovations CZ
innovationscz.org/ensuring-drug-quality/ 2/2
Methodology
Our tool recognizes the “fingerprint” of each pharmaceutical compound when light is
transmitted through an authentic sample at wavelengths in the ultraviolet (UV) light
spectrum. This is the wavelength where the active pharmaceutical compound is
reactive to light and is called the Baseline Spectral Fingerprint (BSF). We leveraged
the BSF & developed an algorithm to compensate for the randomness of field
preparation using local sourced reagents.
For proof of concept, we tested 125 samples of random substances prepared by a
third party clinical pharmacologist. 20 were authentic samples while the remainder
were prepared so that each sample was visually indistinguishable from the authentic
samples but were either counterfeit or low quality (right medication, wrong
concentration). The results yielded 1 false negative and 0 false positives.
Next Steps
We are currently designing a low cost hand-held tool which can be used at bedside
and in hospital pharmacies to test & ensure the quality of medications being given to
patients.
Learn how to get involved here.