Detection of Counterfeit medicines

Counterfeit, fake and substandard medicines constitute a fast-growing threat to public health. For example, the use of substandard medicines can lead to fatalities and the emergence of medicine-resistant forms of infectious agents. Current estimates are that around 1% of medicines in developed countries, and 10-30% of medicines in developing countries, are counterfeit. According to recent estimates, the trade of counterfeit medicines is worth about US$75 billion annually, and the problem is rapidly growing. This is a joint project with researchers at King's College London and aims at developing a prototype to determine if a medical sample is counterfeit or not.

The project is founded by the Wellcome Trust and the EU FP7 EU FP7. Further details on the latter project can be found here.