As with disease pandemics, the globalization of the pharmaceutical trade has the potential to rapidly spread poor-quality medicines worldwide before adequate detection and intervention are possible. There are three main categories of poor quality medicines; degraded, substandard and falsified (counterfeit). Substandard products arise as a result of lack of expertise, poor manufacturing practices, or insufficient infrastructure whilst those falsified are the 'products' of criminals. Degraded medicines arise from poor storage conditions. Falsified drugs may not contain the active ingredient, may contain the wrong ingredients or may even contain toxic compounds. Substandard drugs contain active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) amounts that are in excess of �15% of the stated amount. Distinguishing between these three classes requires simultaneously identifying and quantifying the expected (or wrong) APIs. Drug counterfeiters, especially in countries where effective law enforcement is lacking, not only defraud consumers, but also deprive ill patients from therapies that can cure them.  The inhuman act of drug counterfeiting is so common in some third world countries such that there is a greater probability of getting a fake drug rather than a real one.  Even in the US, where strict controls exist, there have been reports of counterfeit drugs. Commonly counterfeited drugs are generally those in high demand and with a high end-price. Poor quality drugs also play a central role in the development of drug resistance, although a definite link between the two has not been established beyond doubt.In this talk I will showcase our work involving the development of new mass spectrometry-based strategies for the detection and characterization of a wide variety of anti-infectives. I will also present recent examples of counterfeit antimalarials found in Africa and SE Asia, and how analytical chemistry helped find the sources of the falsified medicines.

Investigating fake antimalarial and TB drugs using mass spec

244th National Meeting (2012)

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