A study of the pharmaceutical quality of chloroquine and paracetamol products sold in a major Nigerian "market"

Malaria is a major public health problem in endemic countries, and the quality of anti-malarial products is a concern in the therapeutic management of individual patient. In this study, we have evaluated the pharmaceutical quality of chloroquine and paracetamol oral products obtained from a major Nigerian drug "market" using a less elaborate sampling procedure. Results have shown that there are still some defects in the pharmaceutical quality of these drugs, despite the activities of the Nigeria's drug regulatory agency (National agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC). 21% (7/34) of the drug products were not registered by NAFDAC. The pharmaceutical properties of the products indicated that 6, 15, 9, and 9% of them failed tests for disintegration, dissolution, crushing strength, and percentage of active content, respectively. 4 out of the 6 chloroquine liquid preparations evaluated had inadequate active content. These defects could have resulted from deliberate counterfeiting, poor quality control during manufacture or decomposition of the products. However, this could not be ascertained from the data available to us in this study. The implication of these findings, however, is that the newer anti-malarial drugs that have recently been introduced into the Nigerian market should be safeguarded, if their therapeutic usefulness must be sustained.