Composition analysis of falsified chloroquine phosphate samples seized during the COVID-19 pandemic.
J Pharm Biomed Anal
; 194: 113761, 2021 Feb 05.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-919602
ABSTRACT
The proliferation of falsified medicines can cause serious public health issues, particularly in the context of a global pandemic such as the actual COVID-19 pandemic. Our study involved eight chloroquine phosphate medicines seized in Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo and Niger during March and May 2020. These suspect samples were first analyzed in a screening phase using field tools such as handheld Raman spectroscopy (TruScan) and then in a confirmation phase using laboratory tools such as hyperspectral Raman imaging and High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). The results confirmed the falsified nature of the samples, highlighting the presence of metronidazole at low dose in four samples (16.6, 15.2, 15.2 and 14.5 mg/tab), too low levels of chloroquine in two samples (2.4 and 20.2 mg/tab), and substitution of chloroquine phosphate by paracetamol in one sample (255.7 mg/tab). The results also confirmed that four samples had been adulterated with paracetamol in trace amounts and two of them presented traces of chloramphenicol.
Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Spectrum Analysis, Raman
/
Chloroquine
/
Counterfeit Drugs
/
Pandemics
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Observational study
Limits:
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
J Pharm Biomed Anal
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
J.jpba.2020.113761
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