Substandard/Falsification Antibacterial Agents: A Systematic Review of Liquid Chromatographic and Spectrophotometric Methods for Their Detection

Abstract

Falsified antibacterial agents continue to pose serious public health problems around the world. They are notably responsible for resistance emergence in the treatment of infectious diseases that can lead to death. The aim of this study was to summarize the literature on the methods developed and validated to detect poor quality antibacterial agents in order to assess the impact of these available methods in the fighting against Counterfeit/substandard medicines. Thus, studies published in the time from January 2000 to July 2017, were accessible via Google Scholar and Pubmed and allowed to analyze 41 papers. The majority (30) of developed and validated methods concerned LC methods, 9 regarded UV/V is spectrophotometry and two studies simultaneously developed both methods. Antibacterial agents belonging to beta-lactams group were the most concerned by the methods developed and validated (39%), followed by quinolones (18%) and macrolides (12%). Regarding active ingredients, amoxicillin (12%) was the most concerned by the development and validation methods. In spite of several available methods to detect substandard drugs, antibacterial agents for which methods were developed and validated were the most concerned by worldwide detected non-conformities. The fight against this scourge should not be only limited by their detection, but it also requires an effective involvement of different actors notably: health authorities, international organizations, pharmaceutical industries etc.

Luminescent and time-resolved determination of gemifloxacin mesylate in pharmaceutical formulations and spiked blood plasma samples using a lanthanide complex as a probe

“…Furthermore, the use of substandard antibacterial agents at suboptimal doses is a known factor contributing to the development of bacterial resistance. 3 Despite numerous investigations by the health authorities of various nations to combat these types of medications, the prevalence of drugs of dubious quality is still on the rise. Current data indicates that over 10.5% of the drugs in global use are either counterfeit or of inferior quality.…”

“…Current data indicates that over 10.5% of the drugs in global use are either counterfeit or of inferior quality. 3 In recent years, the uoroquinolone class of antibiotics has gained signicant prominence. Gemioxacin mesylate (GMF), represented by (R,S)-7-(3-aminomethyl-4-(sync)-methoxyimino-1-pyrrolidinyl)-1-cyclopropyl-6-uoro-1,4-dihydro-4-oxo-1,8naphthyridine-3-carboxylic acid methanesulfonate, is an effective antibiotic targeting both Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria.…”

“…Current data indicates that over 10.5% of the drugs in global use are either counterfeit or of inferior quality. 3…”

Detection of Substandard and Falsified Antibiotics Sold in the Democratic Republic of the Congo Using Validated HPLC and UV-Visible Spectrophotometric Methods

“…18 High-performance liquid chromatography and UV-visible (UV-vis) spectrophotometry are among the most widely used techniques for quality control of essential medicines in LMICs. 19,20 Therefore, this work focused on these two analytical techniques. Hence, the overall objective of the present study was to develop and validate simple, rapid, and accurate HPLC and UV spectrophotometric methods suitable for routine quality control testing of four widely used antibiotics (azithromycin [AZT], cefadroxil [CFD], cefixime [CFX], and erythromycin [ERH]) in the Haut-Katanga region.…”