How Simple Innovations Are Fighting Fake Medicine

In the latest episode of the PSM podcast, host Shabbir Imber Safdar, Executive Director of the Partnership for Safe Medicines, is joined by Dr. William H. Grover, Associate Professor of Bioengineering at UC Riverside. They talk about the motivations and innovations of The Grover Lab, and how their low-cost innovations are helping to combat the global crisis of falsified and substandard medicines. 

 

Dr. Grover introduces us to two of the groundbreaking tools developed by his lab: 

🔹 The Mbira Sensor: A $5 device inspired by a 3,000-year-old African instrument that can distinguish deadly chemical substitutions, such as diethylene glycol for glycerol. 
🔹 CandyCodes: A sprinkle-based authentication system that turns medicine capsules into verifiable, tamper-evident products. 

 

These tools aren’t just creative. They’re practical, scalable, and potentially life-saving.