Drugs are sometimes faked and sold in place of the real stuff, seriously hurting patients and causing them financial harm. Moreover, patients often take the wrong drugs or take them at the wrong time. What if each pill could be tagged by the manufacturer and confirmed by the patient of its authenticity and that it’s the exact medicine that should be ingested?
Researchers at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark and Åbo Akademi University in Finland have demonstrated in a proof-of-concept experiment that they can print a QR code onto a digestible material. A drug can replace the material and each doze of the drug can have a unique QR code that can be checked only through an app linked to a manufacturer’s secure database of authentic QR codes.
Though the idea is a laudable one, the size of the “pills” so far demonstrated are much too large compared to existing drug tablets and capsules.
Take a look at this video demonstrating the concept:
