Reliable low-cost capillary electrophoresis device for drug quality control and counterfeit medicines.

The proportion of counterfeit medicines is dramatically increasing these last few years. According to numerous official sources, in some pharmaceutical wholesalers in African countries, the proportion has reached 80%. Unfortunately, this situation is far to be improved due to lack of suitable analytical equipment allowing rapid actions of the Regulatory Agencies based on scientific consideration, at affordable cost and all over the drug supply chain.

A New Capillary Electrophoresis Device with Deep UV Detector Based on LED Technology.

During the last three years, the College of Engineering and Architecture of Fribourg has developed, in collaboration with the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Geneva - Lausanne, a low-cost analytical capillary electrophoresis (CE) device, equipped with a new deep UV detector based on LED technology. The aim is to use it for educational purposes and/or basic pharmaceutical-analytical services, including identification or quality control assays in developing countries.