EVALUATION OF THE QUALITY OF SOME ANTIBIOTICS DISTRIBUTED IN ACCRA AND LAGOS

The persistent prevalence of poor-quality medicines in resource-limited settings has contributed significantly to the alarming global trends in antibiotic resistance. Antibiotics are among the most used, abused and counterfeited medicines and therefore require regular monitoring and surveillance to provide reliable data for proper healthcare delivery. This study evaluated the quality of a total of 45 samples of Azithromycin, Erythromycin and Clindamycin distributed in Accra and Lagos by HPLC for active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) content and in-vitro dissolution for bioavailability. The results revealed that although all the samples contained the requisite API, only 27% were compliant with US Pharmacopoeia requirements for content. For Azithromycin and Clindamycin samples, the presence of excess API was the cause for non-compliance. Regardless of the high failure rate with respect to content, all Azithromycin samples exhibited good dissolution profiles, while 67% of Clindamycin and 36% of Erythromycin were compliant with in-vitro dissolution. These findings suggest that the population in the study sites and possibly in other parts of the sub regionis exposed to substandard antibiotics. Comprehensive measures by Drug Regulatory Authorities to monitor and enforce regulations governing production, importation, registration and storage of essential medicines are needed to address the problem