Identifying Counterfeits

Counterfeit drugs pose a significant and fast-growing threat to public health and to the pharmaceutical industry. For an individual patient, treatment with a counterfeit drug is at best ineffective, and, at worst, lethal. For pharmaceutical manufacturers, both reputation and revenues are at stake. Near infrared (NIR) chemical imaging-as distinct from NIR spectroscopy is a powerful analytical technique that is being used increasingly in the fight against counterfeit drugs. Capable of simultaneously analyzing a number of tablets or capsules, NIR imaging can be automated to provide rapid “genuine/fake” detection. At higher magnifications, it delivers detailed information about the abundance and location of chemical species. Here we consider the challenges posed by counterfeit pharmaceuticals and the unique attributes of NIR that make it such an important tool in dealing with them.