New app fights black market pharmaceuticals

For a patient with high blood pressure, drugs to fight off stroke and heart attacks are a vital element of a daily routine. Taking a fake drug is the last thing such a patient needs.

Now patients have a tool to protect themselves.

A group of young Egyptian programmers, who call themselves GENU, have developed a smartphone application that can differentiate between genuine and fake drugs.

Ten percent of Egyptian pharmaceuticals are fake, including mostly cancer, diabetes, and hypertension drugs, according to former minister of health Hatem El Gabaly.

It is almost impossible to identify the ingredients of a fake drug, which is often completely devoid of the active substance, said Janice William, a pharmacist at El-Deiry Pharmacy in Heliopolis.

“It all comes down the pharmacist’s ethics,” William said. “Unlicensed dealers coming with a wide variety of drugs offering to sell them to the pharmacy is a very common thing.”

The app, the first of its kind in the Middle East, will be “free, quick and simple”, said Ahmed Rashaad, CEO and general manager of GENU. After the application is approved for use, the manufacturers will put a special barcode on the box with medication. When the patient takes a photo of the barcode, they will be able to see if the drug comes from major companies’ factories, or if it is just a random, smuggled substance from China or India, he said.