Adeel Arsalan

Errors in Patients’ Information Leaflets of Marketed Medicines in Pakistan -

The primary source of information for patients’ regarding the medicine is patients’ information leaflet (PIL). The main aim of the study is to evaluate the errors and incomplete information in PIL sold with marketed medicines in Pakistan. For the present study, 11 different classes of oral medicines of different multinational and national pharmaceutical industries were purchased from different pharmacies. The present study has been revealed incomplete information related to medicines in PILs. 9 out of 11 PILs have 48.84% (n= 63) major while minor errors were 51.16% (n= 66). The major errors were included incomplete information of indications, adverse drug effects, drug mechanism, dosage errors, drug-drug and drug-food interactions, precautions and warning, pharmacokinetic profile and pregnancy and lactation. Whereas, omission of structural formula, molecular weight, chemical names, laboratory tests, clinical trials data, font size, and less use of national language (urdu) have been observed as minor errors. It has been concluded that majority of PILs sold with marketed medicines were not up to the mark and met the regulatory requirements. In countries like Pakistan, mainly pharmaceutical industries have not called attention on information of marketed drugs medicines proved a shocking situation regarding the negligence of health matter in Pakistan.

Stability-Indicating Photochemical Method for the Assay of Riboflavin: Lumichrome Method

A stability-indicating photochemical method for the assay of riboflavin (RF) in photodegraded samples and aged vitamin preparations has been developed. It is based on photochemical conversion of RF to lumichrome (LC) in alkaline solution under controlled conditions of light intensity, temperature, pH, time of exposure, and distance. Under these conditions about two-thirds of RF is converted to LC and on the basis of the RF : LC ratio the concentration of RF can be determined in degraded solutions. The method involves the extraction of photolyzed solutions of RF (pH 2.0) with chloroform and determination of LC along with lumiflavin (LF) by a two-component spectrometric method at 356 and 445 nm. The method has been validated and the results of the assay of RF in photodegraded solutions compare well with those of the standard USP fluorimetric method. The recovery of the method is 99–101% and the precision is within 2%. The method is stability-indicating and can be applied to the assay of RF in photodegraded solutions and aged vitamin preparations. The method is specific compared to that of the USP fluorimetric method in which the degraded LC may interfere with the fluorescence emission of RF.