PharmaDrop wins Rep. Rob Menendez’s 2024 Congressional App Challenge in New Jersey’s Eighth District

When asked what inspired the creation of PharmaDrop, the student said, “I have used medicines all my life like the majority of the nation’s population, whether it be vitamins and supplements or prescriptions. When I caught strep throat last winter, I was prescribed antibiotics, and realized that after completing my dosage, I still had several pills left over. Uncertain as to what I would do with this excess, I researched how I should properly dispose of it, and became introduced to the issue of the antibiotic resistance crisis. 

Upon learning about the antibiotic resistance crisis, I learned of the impact of irresponsible disposal of medicines, particularly antibiotics. This led me to delve deeper into this issue, and through my research, I found that antibiotics have accumulated nearly everywhere due to this issue: from bodies of water to the animal products we consume. I also realized that a major problem associated with this issue is the detection of antibiotics itself, as many insufficient existing methods have hindered efforts to mitigate their ensuing negative impact due to inappropriate disposal.

Through my research, I came across electrochemical sensors, which offer advantages to other methods of detection for not only antibiotics but other substances in general. This inspired me to engineer a sensor that detects the antibiotic Ciprofloxacin in various substances. I was fortunate enough to present my sensor at the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) in May 2024. 

However, through my exploration of this issue, I came across New Jersey’s Project Medicine Drop initiative, which imbued me with a sense of hope that action was being taken at the local scale. I also recognized that while promoting and enabling disposal is a major part in addressing this issue, making it incentivizing and convenient while educating the public on how to do so is another crucial step to encouraging proper medicine disposal. This understanding became the foundation of PharmaDrop’s mission: to make proper medicine disposal convenient and accessible while raising awareness, addressing the root causes for this crisis.”