Noninvasive Detection of Counterfeit and Substandard Vaccines and Biotherapeutics

This project aims to develop a simple, fast, inexpensive, and noninvasive technology and a testing facility to detect counterfeit and substandard vaccines.

Industry Need

Counterfeit detection technology faces two fundamental limitations:
Invasive analysis, which restricts inspection to a few vials per batch/shipment
Point-of-care detection by end users is not possible; detection is performed by highly trained personnel in labs
Other less fundamental but practical limitations include the cost and lengthiness of the detection.

Solution

The University of Maryland, Baltimore, aimed to overcome the fundamental limitations of current technologies by creating novel technology to detect counterfeit and substandard medicines.

This technology has the potential to enable end users, after minimal training, to conduct detection on every vial right before injection. The end-users include healthcare providers and even patients. This transformation is analogous to how cell phones transformed information recording and propagation; almost everyone can do it because the technology is simple, fast, and affordable.

Outcomes and Impacts

This novel technology will provide a simple, fast, inexpensive, and non-invasive way to detect counterfeit and substandard vaccines.

Updates, Related Publications, and Deliverables

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Project Lead

University of Maryland Baltimore