Applications of Portable Spectrometers in Pharmaceutical Forensics

At Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS), the Forensics & Innovative Technologies (FIT) group provides analytical testing support for suspect product investigations. We receive suspect drug product samples from BMS Corporate Security, for company-driven investigations as well as from collaborations with law enforcement. We also receive Product Quality Complaint (PQC) samples from patients and physicians, which in some cases are caused by falsified medicines.

We use both portable instruments and field-based technologies to screen suspect falsified drugs, as well as more advanced laboratory-based instrumentation to identify unknown chemicals within confirmed counterfeit samples.

The portable devices and field-based technology provides productivity and flexibility for screening applications. We show examples of deploying portable devices to worldwide sites at BMS, as well as examples of implementing machine learning image analysis for authentication of package artwork from field-based photography.

The advanced instrumentation helps Corporate Security identify patterns of provenance and helps the PQC group evaluate patient safety risks. We show examples of authenticating protein therapeutic drugs with spectroscopic instrumentation, as well as structure determination of unknown chemicals with chromatography and mass spectrometry.

Altogether, the FIT group at BMS has a robust and flexible analytical toolkit to both detect and identify falsified medicines.