Development, validation and comparison of NIR and Raman methods for the identification and assay of poor-quality oral quinine drops.

Poor quality antimalarial drugs are one of the public's major health problems in Africa. The depth of this problem may be explained in part by the lack of effective enforcement and the lack of efficient local drug analysis laboratories. To tackle part of this issue, two spectroscopic methods with the ability to detect and to quantify quinine dihydrochloride in children's oral drops formulations were developed and validated. Raman and near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy were selected for the drug analysis due to their low cost, non-destructive and rapid characteristics. Both of the methods developed were successfully validated using the total error approach in the range of 50-150% of the target concentration (20%W/V) within the 10% acceptance limits. Samples collected on the Congolese pharmaceutical market were analyzed by both techniques to detect potentially substandard drugs. After a comparison of the analytical performance of both methods, it has been decided to implement the method based on NIR spectroscopy to perform the routine analysis of quinine oral drop samples in the Quality Control Laboratory of Drugs at the University of Kinshasa (DRC).

Application of an innovative design space optimization strategy to the development of LC methods for the simultaneous screening of antibiotics to combat poor quality medicines.

The poor quality of medicines is a crucial problem of public health. Therefore, it is important to have analytical tools to attend decisions of the legal authorities while combating this offense. In this context, the main objective of this study was to develop generic methods able to trace, screen and determine several antibiotics and common associated molecules by mean of liquid chromatographic techniques. For that purpose, an innovative Design Space optimization strategy was applied, targeting 16 antibiotics and 3 beta-lactamase inhibitors. The robustness of the developed method allowed using its use in an environment where operational factors such as temperature are not easy to control and eased its transfer to Ultra High Performance Liquid Chromatography. To demonstrate its ability to quantify the targeted molecules, the developed and transferred method was fully validated for two active ingredients commonly used in association, sulbactam and ceftriaxone, using the accuracy profile as decision tool. Based on this successful step, the method was then used for the quantitative determination of these two active ingredients in three pharmaceutical brands marketed in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Two out of the three pharmaceutical products did not comply with the specifications.

Application of an innovative design space optimization strategy to the development of liquid chromatographic methods to combat potentially counterfeit nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.

In the context of the battle against counterfeit medicines, an innovative methodology has been used to develop rapid and specific high performance liquid chromatographic methods to detect and determine 18 non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, 5 pharmaceutical conservatives, paracetamol, chlorzoxazone, caffeine and salicylic acid. These molecules are commonly encountered alone or in combination on the market. Regrettably, a significant proportion of these consumed medicines are counterfeit or substandard, with a strong negative impact in countries of Central Africa. In this context, an innovative design space optimization strategy was successfully applied to the development of LC screening methods allowing the detection of substandard or counterfeit medicines. Using the results of a unique experimental design, the design spaces of 5 potentially relevant HPLC methods have been developed, and transferred to an ultra high performance liquid chromatographic system to evaluate the robustness of the predicted DS while providing rapid methods of analysis. Moreover, one of the methods has been fully validated using the accuracy profile as decision tool, and was then used for the quantitative determination of three active ingredients and one impurity in a common and widely used pharmaceutical formulation. The method was applied to 5 pharmaceuticals sold in the Democratic Republic of Congo. None of these pharmaceuticals was found compliant to the European Medicines Agency specifications.