International journal of pharmaceutics
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Drug counterfeiting detection is very important for the safety of patients around the world. Counterfeit pharmaceutical products can be referred to the production and distribution of mislabeled medications in which the identity, authenticity, and/or effectiveness is altered. Drugs are often counterfeited to reduce manufacture costs, while still marketing it at as an authentic product. ⋯ Certain counterfeit detection devices have been successfully used for qualitative and quantitative assessment to differentiate counterfeit medications from the reference product. Different technologies are needed to identify the chemical properties of a questioned drug product, which can then be used to determine its authenticity. This review examines the implications of counterfeit medications and the current technological approaches that are able to detect counterfeited pharmaceuticals.