The average percentage variations of different brands of the same anti-cancer drug in same dose and dosage form manufactured in India is very wide. The government and drug manufacturing companies must direct their efforts in reducing the cost of anti-cancer drugs and minimizing the economic burden on the patients.

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Background: Pharmacoepidemiological studies may provide an insight regarding the existing drug use pattern and in planning appropriate interventions to ensure rational drug therapy. Aims and Objectives: This study is aimed to evaluate the prescribing pattern of drugs among pregnant women admitted in antenatal ward of our hospital. Materials and Methods: An observational prospective study was conducted in 72 pregnant women for a period of 6 months. Each prescription was analyzed for demographic variables, various categories of drugs prescribed, individual drugs prescribed in that category, their dosage forms, the World Health Organization core prescribing indicators, and their teratogenic risk. Results: Overall 358 medications were prescribed among which vitamin and mineral supplements (57.26%) were the most commonly prescribed category followed by intravenous fluids (IVFs) (12.57%) and antiemetics (8.38%). Among vitamin and mineral supplements, folic acid (30.24%) was the most commonly prescribed drugs. Ringer lactate (46.67%) was the most commonly prescribed IVF. Ondansetron (66.67%) was the commonly prescribed antiemetics. Most commonly prescribed antimicrobial agents were metronidazole and mebendazole (27.59% each), antiulcer drug was ranitidine (87.5%), analgesic was paracetamol (58.33%), and tetanus toxoid was the only vaccine prescribed. Majority of drugs (75.69%) were prescribed by generic name. Average number of drugs per prescription was 4.97. Percentages of encounters with antibiotic prescribed were 8.10%. The percentage of injections prescribed was 22.91% and that of drugs prescribed from the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM) was 95.53%. Tablet (43.58%) was the common drug formulation. According to teratogenic risk, category B (56.25%) was highest. Conclusion: On the whole, vitamin and mineral supplements were the most commonly prescribed drugs in our study. Prescription by generic name was high, usage of antibiotics and injections was less, and nearly all drugs were prescribed from NLEM, which indicates rational prescription. Usage of category B drugs must be reduced, and complete avoidance of category D drugs is advised.

Background: Impaired and aberrant wound healing imposes a huge financial burden and places an enormous drain in health care resources in the developed world and an insurmountable problem in the developing countries too. In this study, authors have compared the wound healing effect of topical application of Acacia catechu extract with silver sulfadiazine in excisional wound model in guinea pigs.Methods: Twelve guinea pigs were randomly divided into two groups (n=6). The wound healing was observed in excision model. The standard group is treated with silver sulfadiazine (group 1) and the test group with Acacia catechu extract (group 2). The mean wound size expressed in mm2 and the mean percentage of the wound healed was measured on day 0, 4, 8, 12, 16 and 19. Biopsy was done on day 21 for histopathological examination (HPE).Results: Statistical analysis was done by using unpaired t test for between the groups comparison and by using paired t test for within the group comparison. The mean percentage of the wound healed with-in the groups was found to be statistically highly significant (p value <0.001) and in between the groups was found to be statistically non-significant (p value >0.05). A comparable increase in collagen content and granulation tissue was found on HPE in both the groups on day 21.Conclusions: Wound healing effect of the Acacia catechu extract is equal to and comparable with that of silver sulfadiazine.