New test detects fake drugs in minutes
A leading UK expert in analysing pharmaceutical compounds has demonstrated that US-based technology can identify fake medicines in minutes rather than the hours and sometimes days needed using traditional laboratory-based methods,
A leading UK expert in analysing pharmaceutical compounds has demonstrated that US-based technology can identify fake medicines in minutes rather than the hours and sometimes days needed using traditional laboratory-based methods,
Presenting his research at the British Pharmaceutical Conference (BPC) in Manchester, Professor Tony Moffat, head of the Centre for Pharmaceutical Analysis at the University of London's School of Pharmacy, explained that the new technology allows analysis from a scraping rather than from a whole crushed tablet, which saves time and effort, and can also identify counterfeits in real time.
These two important benefits over existing technology offer wholesalers, regulators and governments the opportunity to increase their efforts to detect fake drugs that are increasingly entering the supply chain.
The technology, called Direct Analysis in Real Time (DART), produces an almost instantaneous reading of the chemical composition of the outer coating of a tablet - or of its core composition - based on a scraping of the tablet. Traditional analytical techniques require tablets to be crushed to a powder and processed before they can be assessed.
To test the potential of DART technology, Professor Moffat and his team analysed authentic Cialis tablets, bought from pharmacies in London, and compared them with known counterfeit Cialis tablets provided by the Korean Food and Drug Administration.
The film coating of the authentic drugs contained a signature chemical that was detected by DART in all instances. DART correctly excluded all the counterfeits because of this signature chemical.
Moreover, when a scraping of the tablets was used to examine the core composition of the tablets, DART revealed that none of the counterfeits contained the active ingredient tadalafil. Instead, they contained the active ingredient of Viagra, sildenafil.
"DART clearly differentiated the authentic from the counterfeit preparations within a few minutes," said Professor Moffat. "This technique is minimally destructive and gives accurate and quick readings. There is great potential for this technology to be used more widely in efforts to reduce the market fake medicines."