Potency Determination of Essential Drug Samples Manufactured By Medium and Small Pharmaceutical Industries in Bangladesh

Drugs are considered highly essential and sensitive items for saving lives. Pharmaceutical sector in Bangladesh has grown from strength to strength over the last 40 years and evolved from an import dependent to self-reliant, export oriented sector. But counterfeit, adulterated and sub-standard drugs, though small in percentage, still remain to be a threat in the local market. The purpose of this study is to determine potency of some essential drugs, which are used vigorously by sub-urban and rural people and manufactured by randomly selected small and medium pharmaceutical industries of Bangladesh. The study revealed that the measured potency of different essential drugs manufactured by randomly selected small pharmaceutical industries is mostly unsatisfactory. Here, it has been found that most of the drug samples did not match with the acceptance level: the potency of Amoxicillin tryhydrate capsule has been found 8.25%, 47.9%, 51.1% 19.06%, 57.06% from five different pharmaceutical industries and for Diclofenac Sodium is 44.9%, 26.8%, 27.2%, 29.9%, 19.4%, 62.12%, 15.9% and 60.76% from eight different industries. So, the Drug Administration should have a strict monitoring and controlling mechanism to the distribution of those drugs, otherwise the overall public health of the country will be at stake.