Rapid test for fake Tamiflu detection

The Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, USA, has announced successful tests to determine whether batches of Roche's antiviral Tamiflu (oseltamivir) are genuine, according to a report by Yahoo! News. Instead of taking up to an hour, which is the time required for the high-performance liquid chromatography test, the desorption electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (DESI-MS) technique developed at the Georgia center can analyze a drug sample in less than a minute, according to Facundo Fernandez. The process is an improvement on previous mass spectrometry methods devised by Prof Fernandez and colleagues at the GIT (Marketletter June 26, 2006).

Prof Fernandez explained that, in order to test the accuracy of the DESI-MS process, he obtained samples of Tamiflu from on-line pharmacies, a notorious source of counterfeit or substandard products (Marketletters passim). Due to the drug's cost, about $6.50 per tablet, and its use as a prophylatic and treatment for avian influenza, he explained, Tamiflu is a target for fake drug manufacturers.