UAE’s Ministry of Health to Launch Medicine Counterfeit Detection App

The United Arab Emirates’ Ministry of Health is launching a phone app that will give users the opportunity to detect medicine counterfeit, as a response to a rise of fatal accidents because of illegitimate medicine use. Through the app, users can scan the barcode on the medication package, to reveal the product’s authenticity of lack thereof. This comes at the hands of the steady and rapid rise of counterfeit products in the medical industry. 

Abdul Rahman Al Owais, the UAE’s Minister of Health recently spoke about the app to the Federal National Council, discussing the importance of combating this crucial issue: “The ministry is planning to to launch the smart app in cooperation with international pharmaceutical and medical companies. The application will reveal the credibility or genuineness of the medicines by reading the special barcode on the product to confirm whether it’s original or fake,” says Al Owais in a meeting with FNC last Tuesday.

He also added that this falls under general efforts made by the UAE to tackle the issue of medical counterfeit, such as stopping fraud medicine shipments to other countries, and cited that sometimes the counterfeit medicine comes from multinational medical companies that do not adhere to required safety specifications. The app is expected to significantly decreases the risk of medical accidents and fatalities as a result of illegitimate medicine.