Tiny Fingerprint Test Could Detect Counterfeit Pills in Low-Resource Settings
A technique called Disintegration Fingerprinting records a pill’s dissolution signal as it breaks up in water, using a simple setup (cup, stir plate, microcontroller, servo, IR sensor). In tests on 32 products, it correctly flagged counterfeit or adulterated pills in 90% of cases and could even distinguish generics from brand-name meds, offering a low-cost QA/QC tool for drug distribution—though it requires a known-good reference and misses about 10% of products.