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Evaluation of the type and structure of the imprints used on the surface of medicines
Author(s) -
Pires Carla,
Vigário Marina,
Cavaco Afonso
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
journal of pharmacy practice and research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.222
H-Index - 22
eISSN - 2055-2335
pISSN - 1445-937X
DOI - 10.1002/jppr.1175
Subject(s) - medicine , natural language processing , computer science
Abstract Background Drug imprints on the surfaces of medicines could be used as accessible and economic anti‐counterfeiting measures. Aims To identify and study the structure of different types of imprints and discuss potential problems related to their structure and/or format. Methods In total, 531 Portuguese package leaflets ( PLs ) were manually inspected to confirm and collect the description of the imprints. The number of letters, symbols or mixtures of both was quantified in each imprint. An electronic tool was used to evaluate the linguistic characteristics. Results Only 7.9% of 531 PLs described imprints. Fifty‐five imprints were identified: 23 (41.8%) only formed by letters and 32 (58.2%) formed by letters, numbers or symbols. It was possible to identify 171 words. Conclusion It seems that the imprints were not systematically used as anti‐counterfeiting measures. Experimental studies and the updating of pharmaceutical regulation on the suitability and specificities of these imprints are recommended.