Researchers at the University of Brighton have developed a new device to “detect counterfeit medicines” quickly, accurately and affordably, it yesterday (August 18) revealed.
The university said that the FakeMedSensor, a handheld electrochemical sensor device, is designed to “make drug verification faster, more reliable and affordable”.
The device uses “electrochemical sensing” to detect “the presence and amount of active pharmaceutical ingredients without needing complex processes”, it added.
Read more: ‘Alarming’ research reveals 5,000 fake pharmacy criminal network
While the prototype is still in its pilot phase, the University of Brighton said that the results in laboratory trials have been “strong.”
The next stage for the FakeMedSensor involves broader testing and refinement to meet regulatory and industry standards, with the team behind the device hoping to have it on the commercial market “within the next year”, it added.
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“Fake or poor-quality drugs can enter the system at any stage – from production to point of sale,” said PhD researcher Dr Rico Shergill, who developed the device alongside University of Brighton professor of clinical and bioanalytical chemistry Professor Bhavik Patel.
“We wanted a low-cost portable device that could be used anywhere to detect issues in real time,” he added.
“Serious threat to global health”
And Patel warned that some populations are at higher risk of consuming fake medicines than others.
“Falsified and substandard medication presents a serious threat to global health – one that disproportionately affects vulnerable populations,” he said.
He added that the team’s work aims to deliver “a practical solution that provides wide-scale surveillance of medicines throughout all phases of the supply chain”.
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It comes as the growing demand for weight loss and diabetes drugs like Ozempic/Wegovy and Mounjaro has further highlighted the need to quickly and accurately detect counterfeit medicines worldwide.
The Department of Health (DH) in Northern Ireland this month issued a warning to the public not to “fall victim to criminals” selling fake weight loss medication following reports of patients being hospitalised.
And in 2023, the medicines watchdog revealed that insulin found in fake Ozempic and Saxenda injection pens had led to patients being hospitalised with hypoglycaemic shock.
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Meanwhile, a “large-scale criminal network” of more than 5,000 “fraudulent” online pharmacies has been exposed by a cybersecurity company for selling “counterfeit, contaminated or entirely fake medications”.
And the Department of Health and Social Care (DH) last week launched an investigation into “private non-NHS” prescribing in the UK to “build the evidence base” around the “misuse of medicines [and] counterfeit medicines”, among other things.
