Medicines in Disguise and How to Find Them

In the context of the fight against illegal and falsified medicines, the illegal adulteration of dietary supplements and other products, like cosmetics, medical devices, and food products, with pharmaceutical ingredients is an underestimated phenomenon and is generally indicated as medicines in disguise. However, from the point of view of protecting public health, medicines in disguise represent a serious risk for consumers' health due to adverse effects and possible interactions with therapies already used by a patient to treat a (chronic) medical condition, and who is unaware he is taking a medicine. With an overview of a series of cases reported in the literature, this paper intends to raise awareness about this issue, emphasizing the extent of products that may be concerned and the range of adulterants that may be encountered. Equally important are the analytical techniques, suitable for the detection and identification of adulterants and the analysis of medicines in disguise. Laboratories have a whole plethora of techniques at their disposal; however, there is also a need for simple portable screening techniques to support customs officers and inspectors in their choice of identifying products as suspicious and their decision to seize. This article is categorized under: Toxicology > Drug Analysis