Will your next smart phone app check if your pills are counterfeit?

[AussieNeil]

With Ibrutinib pills working out at about US$90 each, it is no wonder that counterfeit drugs are a serious and growing problem. One company is making it more difficult for the bad guys to sell their fake pills by providing MedSnap ID, an app that uses an iPhone's camera and a reusable Snap Surface:

techrepublic.com/article/mo...

Neil

No it's not a crow but a currawong. Not all Australian birds are brightly coloured!

[zevkalman]

I just read in an Israeli newspaper about a portable infrared spectrometer that is much smaller than a smartphone and is being developed here in Israel that can actually do a chemical survey of your food to see if it is contaminated. It is planned to also scan your pills (like Ibrutinib) to determine if its counterfeit. Here is an English language link to the article:

Copy and paste this in your browser window...the HU software doesn't like embedded commas in its text:

"ynetnews.com/articles/0,734...

That link may not work for some of you, so here is the link on Kickstarter:

kickstarter.com/projects/90...

And an older article in Time Magazine:

time.com/87205/scio-scanner/

[AussieNeil Administrator in reply to zevkalman]

I seem to recall posting about that or a similar sensor previously but Search can't find it. I'd be happier with an instrument that actually analyses the item rather than relying on a database of tablet attributes that could be faked by an excellent counterfeiter, but the near ubiquity of smart phones does make the database approach easier to market...