SecuringPharma reported that a shipment of fake antimalarial tablets, worth around $67,000, was intercepted using the TruScan device earlier this year. The World Health Organization (WHO) recently reported that drug-resistant maladies like malaria are on the rise, with counterfeit and illicit drugs accounting for part of the blame. Easy-use devices like the TruScan spectrometer can help weed out counterfeits before they get to the patient.

The ease of use has also allowed law enforcement officials to be nimble in apprehending suspects. Prior to the use of the TruScan devices, suspect samples had to be sent to a central laboratory for testing-and could take days to obtain a result. Now, the TruScan devices are being used at Nigeria's border control agency, as well as by Nigeria's National Agency for Food and Drug Administration Control (NAFDAC) inspectors for on-the-spot screening of drugs at markets and pharmacies.

Nigeria's use of innovative anti-counterfeiting measures-such as joining technology with aggressive public awareness initiatives-is an important example of how public and private efforts can together address public health threats," said Partnership for Safe Medicines (PSM) Vice President, Bryan Liang, MD, PhD, JD. "They set a good example for other countries where health systems and patient safety are gravely threatened by counterfeit medicines."

According to NAFDAC, the campaign against counterfeits is working-the proportion of fake medicines in circulation is said to be down from 42 percent to 16 percent.