New laser weapon in battle against counterfeit drugs
A new approach to faster and more accurate identification of counterfeit pharmaceutical products through their packaging has been developed by scientists from the Lasers for Science Facility at CCLRC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire, UK.
A new approach to faster and more accurate identification of counterfeit pharmaceutical products through their packaging has been developed by scientists from the Lasers for Science Facility at CCLRC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire, UK.
To stem the rise in fake pharmaceutical products an effective analytical tool is required capable of identifying fake drugs in the field fast and without opening their internal packaging, which would render its content unmarketable.
Traditional techniques used for this purpose include Raman spectroscopy. Nowadays, the technique is available in the form of handheld battery-operated instruments. The method can be also applied to the characterisation of drugs through blister packs although, in a number of cases, this can only be done with restricted sensitivity brought about by the excessive interference from some packaging or capsule enclosures. The use of this technique with non-transparent plastic pharmaceutical bottles has so far not been feasible.
A scientific paper by Drs Charlotte Eliasson and Pavel Matousek titled 'Non-Invasive Authentication of Pharmaceutical Products through Packaging using Spatially Offset Raman Spectroscopy' reports on the successful application of a new form of Raman spectroscopy, Spatially Offset Raman Spectroscopy (SORS) in this area. The research was reported in American Chemical Society's journal Analytical Chemistry.
The method is shown to permit the sensitive probing of the content of both the blisterpacks and plastic bottles without opening them. This can be performed with high sensitivity by reducing dramatically the interference signals from packaging or capsule shell when present.
The work stems from recent research efforts at CCLRC of a wider collaborative team including the CCLRC, ICI, University of Michigan, the Royal Veterinary College and University College London, carried out in the area of the non-invasive spectroscopy of powders and bones which led to the development of the basic concept.
The research will be commercialised through a newly created spinout company - LiteThru Ltd. LiteThru will develop applications based on SORS technology in areas such as pharmaceutical manufacture, anticounterfeiting and medical uses.