We are developing low-cost tests that can be used outside of the lab to detect low-quality medications.
Undergraduates make important contributions to solving real-world problems.
International partnerships enable us to create practical solutions for the developing world.
Many of the pharmaceuticals that are purchased in the developing world are substandard or outright fake drugs. Although there is no global system for monitoring the quality of medicine, study after study reveals pervasive poor quality and products that are worthless or even harmful to patients. Many countries in the developing world do not have the technological infrastructure or regulatory resources to keep low quality medicines off the market shelves. And since the pharmaceutical trade is a lucrative global market, low quality medicine can cross borders and harm people anywhere in the world.
Negligence by manufacturers
Deliberate falsification by manufacturers or distributors
Paper analytical devices (PADs) are test cards that can quickly determine whether a drug tablet contains the correct medicines. They are cheap and easy to use. They don't require power, chemicals, solvents, or any expensive instruments, so they can be deployed rapidly at large scale whereever a problem with pharmaceutical quality is suspected.
By sharing our results directly with medical regulatory agencies, we help them quickly discover poor quality medicines in their markets. This enables them to negotiate with manufacturers and distributors from a position of knowledge and to take other regulatory and legal actions to protect patients from poor quality products.
In the developing world, most buyers have to trust what the seller tells them about the quality of the pharmaceuticals they purchase. Unscrupulous manufacturers and distributors know that there is little chance that their medicines will be screened in a lab. These paper test cards don't need a lab, and they will enable people all over the world to quickly detect low quality medicines and remove them from the market.
I'm at the icddr,b site in Bandarban, and sharing the facility with about 800 boxes of shoes donated by shoe company Tom's. They promise that for every pair they sell in the US, they'll donate a pair of shoes to children in need. Looks like they are following through. The community health workers distribute the shoes when they're doing their other duties. Photo coming later. …
Marya Lieberman gave a workshop about post-market surveillance for 40 staff members from the Directorate General of Drug Administration in Dhaka, Bangladesh, the National Control Lab, and WHO-PQM.
The workshop included a fun project to evaluate the supply chain of a medicine which involved 28 neophytes analyzing samples from a fictional country. The PAD reader box also made its first debut outside Notre Dame. This smart PAD reader will be sited in Bandarban at the icddr,b field office, where a small sampling project will be based in 2019. …