title: Development and validation of a reversed-phase LC method for analysing potentially counterfeit antimalarial medicines.
abstract: Pharmaceutical counterfeiting is more and more a public health problem, especially in developing countries where the most counterfeit drugs are antibiotics, antimalarials and other life-saving drugs. The evaluation of the phenomenon extent is of great concern to the World Health Organization for carrying out a global strategy to combat the phenomenon. To this purpose, a reversed-phase liquid chromatographic method to perform the separation and simultaneous determination of three different kinds of antimalarial drugs (chloroquine, quinine and mefloquine) was developed. The method was validated by using both commercial and in-laboratory produced tablets and was then verified on various in-laboratory produced formulations differing in excipient composition. Finally, the method was successfully applied to the analysis of medicinal samples purchased from the informal market in Congo, Burundi and Angola.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento del Farmaco, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Viale Regina Elena, 299, 00161 Roma, Italy. gaudiano@iss.it
authors.forename: Maria Cristina
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Gaudiano
authors.forename: Eleonora
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Antoniella
authors.forename: Paola
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bertocchi
authors.forename: Luisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Valvo
mesh_terms: D000962:Antimalarials / Q000032:analysis*; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid / Q000379:methods*; D005607:Fraud; D013607:Tablets
chemical_list: D000962:Antimalarials; D013607:Tablets