UF researchers are halfway through a study that would help pharmacists tell if pills are counterfeit.
The $1 million project, which started two years ago, is developing technology that could differentiate two medications by their active ingredients, said one of the main researchers, Swarup Bhunia, a UF electrical and computer engineering professor. In another two years, the average consumer could access the technology at an affordable cost, he said.
“This is developing a technology to empower common people, like you and me, so that we can verify the composition of what we are taking,” Bhunia said.
UF researchers are working with Case Western Reserve University scientists on the project, which is funded by the National Science Foundation.
Working alongside Bhunia is Naren Vikram Raj Masna, a 24-year-old UF computer engineering doctoral second-year, who said he sees a benefit in using it for not only medications, but also everyday dietary supplements.
With this technology, people will no longer need to rely on packaging to know if a pill is authentic, Masna said.
“Counterfeit medicine is everywhere around us,” Masana said. “Thinking of every such incident motivates me to work harder and do my part to make the world a better place to live in.”
FILE - This Aug. 15, 2017, file photo shows an arrangement of pills of the opioid oxycodone-acetaminophen in New York.
