Northeastern University professor Nikos Passas and his colleagues from two other universities have secured $1 million from the National Science Foundation to research the illegal medical products trade and develop tools that would help disrupt it. Illegal medical products trade causes deaths of hundreds of thousands people, undermines competition and the rule of law, damages companies’ brands, causes economic losses and security threats, and corrupts financial systems, says Passas, professor of criminology and criminal justice and co-director of Institute for Security and Public Policy at Northeastern.
For the next four years, Passas will lead a multidisciplinary team of four scientists that also includes Northeastern professor Ravi Sundaram. They hope to first gain a better understanding of the problem and then develop various tools to disrupt the flow of illegal medical products.
