PurePills

Pathogen Hunter's Research Team

PurePills

Quality Antibiotics for All, a community-driven initiative using tech to track and combat substandard antibiotics for safe, effective treatment.

Port Vila, Vanuatu

VUT

Other, including part of a larger organization (please explain below)

We are a collaborative team based in Japan and Vanuatu. Yamagata University in Japan will provide all the necessary technology, training, and resources to execute the PurePills project in Vanuatu under the management of the National University of Vanuatu.

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Poor-quality and fraudulent antibiotics pose a severe humanitarian and economic threat, especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is an urgent concern. According to the WHO, 1 in 10 medicines circulating in LMICs is either substandard or falsified, with antibiotics being the most frequently reported. These compromised antibiotics directly contribute to increased mortality and morbidity due to reduced efficacy or harmful contaminants, exacerbating the AMR crisis. Efforts must tackle the challenge of limited resources in LMICs while bridging critical gaps in the feedback loop between regulation, healthcare providers, and communities to ensure timely interventions and policy improvements. Initiating our participatory solution in Vanuatu, a country facing a triple burden of rising noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), overwhelmed health services following a recent earthquake, and emerging climate change threats, we recognize the critical gaps in antibiotic monitoring and management at the community level. Closing this gap is pivotal in building a healthier, safer, and more equitable society where access to quality, life-saving antibiotics is ensured for all.

PurePills is an AI-driven system integrating community reporting, wastewater surveillance, rapid antibiotic testing to monitor and reduce the substandard and falsified (SF) antibiotic burden and AMR within the community. How PurePills Works: 1. AI-Driven Mobile App: Citizens and pharmacies can report antibiotic use in their area, providing data on drug usage, packaging (photo), and potential issues. AI analyzes this information to identify trends in antibiotic circulation and detect possible hotspots for SF antibiotics. 2. Wastewater-Based AMR Surveillance: AI correlates reported antibiotics with community AMR gene levels from wastewater. This helps link antibiotic quality and usage patterns with AMR trends, identifying high-risk areas facing SF and a growing resistance burden. 3. Rapid Antibiotic Testing: The PurePills team verifies AI-flagged antibiotics using affordable Paper Analytical Devices (PADs) to quickly confirm drug quality. 4. Flagging & Public Notification: SF antibiotics are flagged in the mobile app and displayed on a dashboard, alerting users, pharmacies, and policymakers in the affected area. 5. Feedback Loop: If communities respond to PurePills warnings by reducing the use of flagged SF antibiotics, wastewater surveillance should reflect a corresponding decline in AMR gene levels over time. PurePills not only identifies SF antibiotics but also evaluates the effectiveness of interventions.

PurePills offers a cost-effective, AI-powered approach to tackling SF antibiotics and combating AMR in resource-limited LMICs. By integrating community reporting, AI-driven risk mapping, wastewater surveillance, and PADs testing, PurePills provides a real-time, data-driven system to monitor antibiotic quality and AMR trends. Why PurePillsis Unique PurePills will bridge critical gaps between regulators, healthcare providers, and communities, ensuring timely interventions to remove low-quality antibiotics from circulation. This approach strengthens regulatory oversight while empowering pharmacists and citizens with instant reporting tools to detect and flag SF antibiotics. PADs testing offers rapid, low-cost confirmation of antibiotic quality. The PurePills database will furnish policymakers with real-time data on SF antibiotic circulation and AMR hotspots, guiding targeted interventions to reduce the impact of SF antibiotics and the AMR burden. Additionally, pharmacies and healthcare providers will gain access to accurate drug quality information, helping them make informed decisions regarding antibiotic distribution. By combining AI, participatory monitoring, and wastewater surveillance, PurePills creates a self-sustaining feedback loop that not only identifies high-risk areas but also measures the effectiveness of interventions over time. Ultimately, reducing the prevalence of SF antibiotics will safeguard community health, preserve the effectiveness of life-saving medicines, and support global efforts to combat AMR.