Forensic science tracks down fake drugmakers

A collaborative effort between scientists, public health agencies and police forces has led to the break-up of an organized criminal gang selling a counterfeit malaria agent, artesunate. By utilizing a novel method of pollen analysis, investigators were able to pin-point the location of fake producers of the drug, according to a research paper published on-line by the Public Library of Science's journal, PLoS Medicine.

The problem came to light when Guilin Pharmaceutical, one of three licensed producers of the compound in China, received complaints of tablets containing starch, instead of the sweet wormwood-derived agent.

Forensic scientists working for Interpol, the World Health Organization and UK-headquartered medical research charity, the Welcome Foundation, examined specific pollen in seized samples of fake antimalarial drugs from China, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam. An illegal production site in Puning, southern China, was identified. Chinese police have now arrested a trader in Yunnan Province, Xu Qiang, along with two fellow Chinese and two Myanmar accomplices, the New York Times reports.