For years we have seen the headlines warning us of a rising tide in prescription opiate-related deaths, seemingly indiscriminately spilling across the country from coast to coast, infiltrating small towns and big cities alike. As prescriptions have exploded, a prolific black market emerged, and social stigma has dropped, these drugs have seen increased “environmental availability” for […]

  Imagine trying to describe the color of a light yellow liquid to someone across the world. What words do you use? How do you communicate the exact qualities of this particular shade? How do you describe the degree to which it differs from another, similar but distinctly different color? These are questions faced by multiple industries across […]

In 2013, the Mayo Clinic released a study revealing that 70% of Americans were prescribed at least one prescription medication in the previous year, 50% were prescribed two or more medications, 20% took five or more different drugs. Furthermore, “the percentage of people who took at least one prescription drug in the past month increased […]

Global health has long been a concern for many and as healthcare expands its boundaries, spectrophotometry continues to play an active role in effective medical aid around the world. Spectrophotometry can “provide a platform for diagnosing bilirubin, hemoglobin, and glucose in the serum of the blood. These three tests were determined the most useful in the […]

Drug administration is an important part of pharmaceutical effectiveness and spectrophotometry plays a vital role in the development and monitoring of various forms of prescription drugs. Pills, capsules, powder, orodispersibles, and liquid medications all utilize spectrophotometry to aid in the analysis of the APIs (active pharmaceutical ingredients), stability, and safety of these products. This one […]

The color of dentures has been a major concern throughout the history of dental prosthetics, which began as early as 1500 BC when Egyptians fashioned dentures out of human teeth threaded on gold wire. Owing to both their functional and aesthetic properties, teeth obtained from other beings—human or animal, dead or alive—remained the primary source of denture materials […]

Walking up to a cosmetics counter can be like being transported inside a kaleidoscope of colors. Little round pots of eye shadow traverse the spectrum from the softest white to the inkiest black, lipsticks run from intense blood reds to the faintest blushes of pink, and foundations reflect the rich range of human skin tones, from […]

Visual analysis is an important part of the inspection process in the pharmaceutical industry. Strict regulations and processes dictate the safety and effectiveness of all prescription drug medications. While human visual analysis plays an essential role in parenteral drug production1, human error accounts for a considerable amount of oversight throughout the industry.2 Instrumental visual analysis technology […]

Counterfeit drugs have historically been associated with third world countries, where an estimated 20-30% of drugs are counterfeit products passed off as legitimate pharmaceuticals. While some counterfeits are formulated with active ingredients that mimic real medications, others have no therapeutic properties at all or, even worse, contain harmful chemicals that endanger the lives of patients. […]