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Life sciences · Journal article
International Journal of Health and Pharmaceutical Research · August 12, 2026
A consensus or society position rather than new primary data.
This is a narrative review consolidating evidence on detection methods for substandard and falsified medicines, organized around a two-tier surveillance model (point-of-sale screening followed by reference laboratory confirmation). The paper advocates for intelligent integration of complementary analytical and field-deployable methods rather than reliance on a single technology, supported by shared reference databases and harmonised protocols. Key evidence gaps—library availability, quantification of active ingredient content, data governance, and programme sustainability—are identified as priorities.
Narrative review. Low- and middle-income countries with limited regulatory and laboratory capacity; surveillance of pharmaceuticals at point of sale and in reference laboratories.
Two-tier surveillance model combining inexpensive portable screening at or near point of sale with confirmatory analysis in reference laboratories has consolidated over the past decade Substandard and falsified medicines span absent, incorrect, degraded or subtherapeutic active ingredients as well as deliberately deceptive packaging, requiring multiple detection approaches Field-deployable methods reviewed include vibrational spectroscopy (near infrared, Raman, mid-infrared), benchtop NMR, terahertz and X-ray techniques, thin-layer chromatography, paper analytical devices, electrochemical and microfluidic platforms, portable mass spectrometry, and digital approaches including smartphone image analysis and machine learning
Specific guidance on which methods to prioritize for particular resource levels or pharmaceutical categories is not detailed
Clinicians and regulators in resource-limited settings should adopt a complementary multi-method approach to detection of substandard and falsified medicines rather than relying on single screening tools. Implementation requires investment in shared reference databases, harmonised validation protocols, and sustainable financing.
A systematic review of analytical methods for detecting substandard and falsified pharmaceuticals, synthesizing evidence across multiple detection platforms and recommending an integrated surveillance model for resource-limited settings.
As stated by the source record.
Clinicians and regulators in resource-limited settings should adopt a complementary multi-method approach to detection of substandard and falsified medicines rather than relying on single screening tools. Implementation requires investment in shared reference databases, harmonised validation protocols, and sustainable financing.
Graded across the dimensions that decide whether you should act, each from what the source actually supports. There is no single score, and where a dimension was not assessed it says so.
What is missing. This record has no reported figures. That is a gap in the analysis, not a judgement about the study.
Substandard and falsified medical products remain a persistent threat to public health, with the heaviest burden falling on low- and middle-income countries that have limited regulatory and laboratory capacity. Detecting poor quality medicines is intrinsically difficult because no single technique captures the full range of defects, which span absent, incorrect, degraded or subtherapeutic active ingredients as well as deliberately deceptive packaging. Over the past decade a two-tier surveillance model has consolidated around inexpensive, portable screening at or near the point of sale, followed by confirmatory analysis in reference laboratories. This paper reviews recent progress across that continuum. It outlines the epidemiology and public health burden of poor-quality medicines, the sampling and survey design that underpins credible surveillance, and the confirmatory chromatographic and mass spectrometric methods that serve as the analytical reference. It then examines field-deployable vibrational spectroscopy in the near infrared, Raman and mid-infrared ranges; additional structural methods including benchtop nuclear magnetic resonance, terahertz spectroscopy and X-ray techniques; low-cost chemical and paper-based tools such as thin-layer chromatography kits, paper analytical devices and electrochemical and microfluidic platforms; emerging portable and ambient ionisation mass spectrometry; and the rapid expansion of digital approaches including smartphone image analysis, chemometric and machine learning models, cloud-connected spectral libraries, and product authentication and track-and-trace systems. The techniques are compared against criteria that matter in resource-limited settings, namely sensitivity, specificity, cost, portability, training burden, destructiveness and throughput. The central argument is that the most credible path forward is not a single breakthrough device but the intelligent integration of complementary methods, supported by shared reference databases, harmonised validation protocols and sustainable financing. Persistent gaps in library availability, quantification of active ingredient content, data governance and programme sustainability are identified as priorities for future work
Taken from the source record, never inferred. Follow any of these and new work involving them reaches your briefing.