ChemoPAD: a quick test to spot bad quality chemotherapy drugs for cancer care
Official title: Adapting a point of use test card, the chemoPAD, for protecting chemotherapy drug quality in sub-Saharan Africa
Funded at University of Notre Dame · NIH-11408729 · Data updated 2026-11-12
A low-cost, point-of-use test and phone app will help protect cancer patients by detecting fake or substandard injectable chemotherapy drugs.
Quick facts
| Grant type | U01 cooperative agreement |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | University of Notre Dame NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Notre Dame, United States) |
| Project start | August 23, 2022 |
| Project end | July 31, 2027 |
| Funding year | 2026 |
| Award (this year) | $569,244 |
| NIH project number | 5U01CA269195-05 |
| Project ID | NIH-11408729 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Patients receiving injectable chemotherapy in participating sites could benefit from improved drug quality oversight and safer treatment.
✕Less likely to help
Patients without access to chemotherapy drugs or those not involved in quality surveillance may not directly benefit.
What this research studies
This project adapts a simple paper test card (chemoPAD) and a smartphone app to screen eight injectable chemotherapy drugs for quality at the point of use. It aims to prevent harm from falsified or substandard medicines by providing rapid, accessible checks, including in low-resource settings. The study will validate the technology in multiple countries and create a path for deployment in the United States after demonstration of usefulness and reliability.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, patients could receive safer, better-quality chemotherapy drugs and fewer treatment interruptions due to poor drug quality.
How similar studies have gone: Prior work shows point-of-use tests and smartphone-based checks can improve medication quality monitoring in other contexts, but this specific chemoPAD approach for chemo drugs is novel.
Where this research is happening
-
University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Lieberman, Marya — University of Notre Dame
- Study coordinator: Lieberman, Marya
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About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.