A Liverpool scientist warned against fake covid vaccines advertised on the darknet.
Dr Sulaf Assi, a senior lecturer in pharmacy at Liverpool John Moores University, developed a new portable device to detect counterfeit Covid-19 vaccines in "less than a minute". Last year, the NHS urged the public to be wary of 'vaccine fraud', and news outlets reported on fake versions of major Covid-19 vaccines being sold on the darknet, a section of the internet accessible only through specialised software.
Dr Assi said: "Often these fakes are just saline solution, but some samples have been shown to be a different vaccine; so at best, you get ineffective treatment, and at worst lethal effects."
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Along with NHS Central Liverpool Primary Care Network and health sciences company Perkin Elmer, LJMU developed a portable method of authenticating mRNA (Messenger RNA) type vaccines, the most common type of Covid-19 vaccines, used by Moderna and Pfizer. The device analyses light as it passes through vaccines in their original vials.
The test, which the university said has "100% accuracy", determines the physiochemical properties of the sample by analysing light split into its constituent wavelengths like a prism. In tests using surplus vaccines, the method was successful in authenticating 458 vaccines of the mRNA type.
LJMU hopes this will "allow public health authorities to dispense with slow and expensive laboratory testing". Dr Assi said: "Samples can be matched in less than a minute and the kit gives a simple 'Yes/No' answer.
"Carrying out an on-the-spot test does not require specialist skills as long as libraries of vaccines/constituents are in place. It should prove useful to hospitals, clinics, vaccination sites, customs, pharmacies and the like."
She added: "Vaccine fraud in the UK is extremely rare and the public should have every confidence in going to get their jab or booster to help us beat Sars-Cov-2."
The results were published in a research paper by Dr Assi and scientists from Anglia Ruskin University and the Lebanese University. It was included in the peer-reviewed journal Plos One on Wednesday, May 4.
