Sub-standard and counterfeit medicines are a great threat to patient health and safety as well as the profitability of the UK pharmaceutical industry. This valuable symposium looks at the big issues and current best practice: designing the formulation of medicines for authentication, the steps being taken by the European pharmaceutical industry to implement the European Falsified Medicines Directive as well as the MHRA’s enforcement successes and the role of its Laboratory. The use of modern methods to detect counterfeit medicines in the laboratory includes the use of NMR and MS methods; NIR, Raman and optical imaging methods; and the use of hand-held instruments. The symposium will be introduced by Prof Trevor M Jones CBE.