Fake pharmaceuticals

Science and technology are playing an important role in anticounterfeiting fight, from the analytical techniques used to quantify fakes to the tracking strategies to catch perpetrators. One of the few programs that aim to acquire accurate statistics of drug counterfeiting, at least in developing nations, is a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation-funded project called the ACT Consortium. On an international level, Interpol teamed up with WHO in 2006 to create IMPACT. In addition to local, national, and international law enforcement, pharmaceutical companies hire former police officers to investigate counterfeiting cases. Pfizer has former Scotland Yard and FBI agents, and a former Turkish general. Wet chemistry, thin-layer chromatography, X-ray fluorescence, high-performance liquid chromatography, and mass spectrometry are all commonly used to find fakes. Those wanting to prevent counterfeiting are trying out bar codes or RFID tags on packaging so that pharmacists can check the pedigree of a package before dispensing the drug