Innovative Strategy for Counterfeit Analysis

Currently, counterfeit medicine is a significant issue for the pharmaceutical world, and it targets all types of therapeutic areas. The health consequences are appalling, since counterfeit medicines can contain impurities and the wrong chemical composition, and can be manufactured and/or stored in dreadful conditions. The provision of fast and reliable analytical tools can contribute to an efficient fight against this phenomenon. In this paper, an analytical strategy based on mobile and forensic laboratories is presented. The mobile equipment, composed of handheld x-ray fluorescence, Raman, infrared, and near-infrared spectrometers, and a handheld microscope, can be used as a first screening tool to detect counterfeits. The counterfeits can then be confirmed in a forensic-dedicated lab in which the chemical composition of the counterfeits is determined to evaluate the danger encountered by the patients. Relevant links with former counterfeit cases then can be revealed based on the analytical data, and can be interpreted from a forensic intelligence perspective in order to provide additional information for law enforcement.