Analysis of pharmaceutical counterfeits using terahertz technology – AlyPOTEC

This project offers to develop a new terahertz (THz) sensor allowing to detect, identify and characterize falsified medicines. It is based on the terahertz time domain spectroscopy technique. The developed system will implement optical fiber coupled components to optimize the compactness, reliability and mobility of the system.

A preliminary study has already allowed to demonstrate the potential of the proposed technology towards pharmaceutical products. It is indeed possible to distinguish different products coming from different manufacturers (containing the same active principle but different excipients).

A detailed study of various types of products is going to be carried out to estimate detection thresholds and criteria. The influence of the materials of packaging will be studied. It is also planned to characterize substances presenting a polymorphism.

In this first phase, no scientifc productions or patents have been foreseen.

The project ‘AlyPOTEC’ aims to improve the infrastructure’s security with respect to counterfeit, falsified or low quality pharmaceutical products. To achieve this goal, we propose to develop a novel terahertz (THz) sensor that enables to detect, identify and characterize a wide range of counterfeit medicines. The pronounced application potential of this project is evidenced by the participation of several different end users. It is for example anticipated that the proposed system could be applied during customs controls, for quality control or product authentication by pharmaceutical industrial, and by official medicine control laboratories. The topic of the proposed project AlyPOTEC belongs to one of the nine sectorial domains of the MICA Carnot Institute (Materials Institute Carnot Alsace), namely Health Prevention. This developed tool will provide a complementary analysis which will give further information on the counterfeit product origin and “history” (storage, manufacturing process, transport and composition). The project has a highly multidisciplinary character, combining researchers and expertise from chemistry, pharmaceutics, terahertz techniques, and system integration: ISL, two laboratories of University Paris Descartes, and HORUS LASER). Furthermore, two representatives of the public security sector will provide crucial expertise: both the Service Commun des Laboratoires de la Douane and the AFSSAPS will give inputs on their operational needs, on the main counterfeited products, and on detection criteria. A comprehensive study of the detection capabilities of the THz technologies (both time domain spectroscopy and imaging) towards selected products and counterfeiting criteria will be performed. Comparative analysis with established methods is also an important part of the project and will highlight THz technology assets. An innovative, compact and mobile prototype will be developed using fiber coupled components. This system will be validated on real samples coming from seizures.