KTH students software verifies the authenticity of medicines
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), around 10 per cent of the world's medicines are either of substandard quality or counterfeit. According to the UN, this causes half a million deaths annually, in Africa alone. Civil engineering students Kristina Hoang and Fabian Forsberg at KTH Royal Institute of Technology invented a solution to the problem.
"It is very profitable to counterfeit drugs because they have a high profit margin. Patients often have no choice but to buy cheap, counterfeit alternatives. Sometimes these work, sometimes they don't, patients take the risk because they can't afford the real thing," Hoang says.
Fake malaria medicine kills hundreds of thousands
Kristina Hoang is in her second year of the Industrial Engineering and Management programme. Together with Fabian Forsberg, who is in the third year of the same programme, she has received support from KTH Innovation to develop software that can distinguish counterfeit medicine from the real thing.
The main reason for the students software is that every year over 250,000 people die due to fake malaria medication. Around 170,000 people, mostly children, die from counterfeit medicines purporting to treat pneumonia. These are the two most vulnerable medication groups, according to Kristina Hoang.
"500 000 die every year in Africa alone. The global figure is probably much higher as the problem is also widespread in Southeast Asia," Forsberg says.
Global market worth over 200 billion dollars
The software developed by the students is a system to track the serial numbers of medicines throughout the hole supply chain of the product. Each part handling the product records which serial numbers they receive and pass on.
"This way, medicines can be traced all the way to the pharmacy, ensuring that products are genuine when they reach the end consumer. By using our app, pharmacies and patients can easily scan and verify the serial number of the medicine to confirm its authenticity," Forsberg says.
He adds that the global market for counterfeit drugs and medicines is valued at between 200 and 432 billion dollars, a very large black market.
"In addition, the problem mainly affects those who are already financially vulnerable, which is another important economic aspect of the problem," Hoang says.
On the market as soon as possible
Originally, Kristina Hoang and Fabian Forsberg developed authentication solutions for luxury products. However, it wasn't long before they realised that there was a greater need globally for verify medicines.
When do you expect the software to be on the market?
"We have a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and want to start pilot testing as soon as as soon as possible to further develop the product based on customer needs. The goal is to have a finished product on the market as soon as possible," Hoang says.
She then goes on to say that the software is mainly aimed at pharmaceutical agencies in regions where the problem is at its worst. The software is designed so that both pharmacies and patients can use the solution to verify that the medicine they buy is genuine.
Text: Peter Asplund