Publications

C, Mg, N and S Isotope Ratio Measurements for the Detection of Counterfeit Tablets of an Antiviral Drug

This poster relates to work carried out under project I3 – Isotope ratio mass spectrometry to establish authenticity and origin of goods of the NMS Chemical and Biological Metrology programme.

>10% of drugs sold worldwide are believed to be counterfeits. The WHO estimates that counterfeits cost the pharmaceutical industry US$46 billion annually and this value is expected to increase to US$75 billion by 2010.

Anti-counterfeiting analytical methods range from simple colorimetric methods to more sophisticated techniques such as near-infrared spectroscopy (NIR), NIR Chemical Imaging and LC-MS approaches. Stable isotopic ‘fingerprints’ of pharmaceuticals can be used as a tool for detecting counterfeits. These stable isotopes are non-radioactive and exist naturally in drugs. Manufacturing and/or biological processes can result in the formation of products whose stable isotope composition is characteristic of that process. When two “identical” tablets are chemically the same and have different isotopic profiles there can be a very high degree of certainty that those pharmaceutical tablets are different.

This poster describes the measurement of small isotopic variations in the active ingredient of genuine and counterfeit tablets and was presented at the 14th Biennial National Atomic Spectroscopy Symposium (BNASS) held at the University of Sussex on 7^th-9^th July, 2008.

To download this poster click on the link below (you must be logged in). For further information about topics covered by the poster, please contact the NMS helpdesk at LGC.