Countering Counterfeiting of Drugs: Unique Fluorescent Inks for Direct Printing onto Pharmaceuticals

Abstract

Counterfeiting of pharmaceuticals is a growing and extremely concerning problem as supported by the increased prevalence, revenues (in the tens of billions), and sophistication of counterfeit medications. Current anti-counterfeit technologies for pharmaceuticals are generally easy for counterfeiters to imitate and typically rely on printing on packages, engraving or standard printing on pills, and pedigrees (only adopted by a few governmental organizations). Considering the dire impacts of counterfeit pharmaceuticals, including loss of life, an extra layer of difficult to replicate anti-counterfeit technology could alert medical personnel and consumers of potential counterfeit pharmaceuticals prior to consumption. In this contribution, two “non-toxic” fluorescent compounds (fluorescein and tryptophan) where formulated into inks for direct printing on medications. Fluorescein is a compound currently used in eye surgeries and tryptophan is a non-toxic amino acid. These inks were successfully printed on a number of medications and evaluated for authentication purposes. The success of these inks may ultimately lead to an easy way for medical personnel and consumers to identify counterfeit pharmaceuticals.