Comparative in-vitro studies on antiplasmodial quality of some Nigerian and foreign brands of chloroquine oral formulations marketed in kano

The world Health Organization's committee for the review of medicines encourages a continuous post-marketing surveillance for quality of essential drugs among which chloroquine is one. In compliance with that, samples of oral chloroquine brands belonging to twenty manufacturers both foreign and Nigerian, ten in each case that were on sale in Kano market between January and August, 2004 were investigated for antimalarial quality. Plasmodium falciparum infected erythrocytes were used for the assay of the samples at 24, 48 and 72 h of incubation at 37 degrees C. Overall, antiplasmodial activity of 90% of the Nigerian brands were found to be in conformity with the WHO acceptable limits revelations, against 50% of their foreign counterparts. Nigerian products had the highest frequency of passes in the test. It can therefore be inferred that Nigerian pharmaceutical industries are complying with the current mandate of ensuring good manufacturing practice, a crusade by NAFDAC.