New technology could reduce drug counterfeiting

A team of Georgia Institute of Technology researchers has developed a new technology that reduces the amount of time needed to check a drug sample for authenticity to reduce the proliferation of poor-quality drugs. Facundo M. Fernández, the team’s leader, spoke at the 244th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, describing new technology that could reduce sample check time from half an hour to a matter of minutes. The team is working on a prototype of a portable and affordable device that could be used in the field, MedicalNewsToday reports. “It would enable medical officials in developing countries to check on whether a drug for malaria, tuberculosis or other diseases is the real thing, or a fake that contains no active ingredients, or the wrong one,” Fernández said, according to MedicalNewsToday. “They could sort the good medicine from the bad immediately, without shipping samples to laboratories abroad and waiting...