Girls develop app to help detect fake drugs

In Nigeria, up to 4 per cent of all drugs in circulation are counterfeits according to the drug regulation agency, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC. Inspired by this, a group of local teenage girls decided to take action and create FD Detector.

This solution is a mobile application that detects fake drugs at the point of purchase. The app allows health professionals and customers with a smartphone to scan the barcode in a drug. The app then indicates whether the drug is authentic or fake and also displays the drug’s expiry date. The innovation also has a provision for users to report any fake drugs directly to the regulator.

One of the girls, Jessica Osita, was particularly driven by a personal situation, after losing her brother who received fake drugs after he was involved in an accident.

The developers built the app using opensource software. They had never used a computer and the internet before.

They were mentored by Uchenna Onwuamaegbu Ugwu who runs a programme to train girls from underprivileged backgrounds on science and technology.

This project led the girls to win the junior division of the 2018 Technovation World Pitch Summit which is hailed as the world’s largest tech entrepreneurship program for girls.

The team now plans to scale the innovation by partnering with NAFDAC to build a comprehensive database of all certified pharmaceutical companies and drugs.

Adapted from: https://bit.ly/2CzLnNN
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvVhYTgvc3A&feature=emb_logo