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.
Congratulations to Sarah Bliese, whose paper on analysis of ceftriaxone via the 12-lane PAD was just accepted in Analytical Methods. Sarah used principal component analysis (PCA) to differentiate good and bad products and even to figure out why a given product was bad quality.
Color "bar codes" classify the products as good or bad.…
Nick Meyers' paper on quantitative analysis of beta lactams on a paper card was just accepted by Analytical Methods. Congratulations Nick! The aPAD accuracy is about 5%, not quite as good as an HPLC, but then again, the aPAD doesn't cost $40,000.
The more blue dots appear, the smaller the antibiotic content.…