%0 Journal Article
%T The Quality of Medicines in Community Pharmacies in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: A Lot Quality Assurance Sampling (LQAS)-Based Survey
%A Hani M. J. Khojah
%A Henrik Pallos
%A Naoko Yoshida
%A Manabu Akazawa
%A Hirohito Tsuboi
%A Kazuko Kimura
%J Pharmacology & Pharmacy
%P 511-519
%@ 2157-9431
%D 2013
%I Scientific Research Publishing
%R 10.4236/pp.2013.47074
%X <span style=\"font-family:Verdana;color:black;font-size:10pt;\">Objectives: </span><span style=\"font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';color:black;font-size:10pt;\"><span style=\"font-family:Verdana;\">To classify community pharmacies (CPs) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in terms of the quality of medicines sold by them, using&nbsp;the lot quality assurance sampling (LQAS) technique with a predefined threshold. </span><span style=\"font-family:Verdana;\">Methods: </span><span style=\"font-family:Verdana;\">Riyadh CPs were divided into 2 categories (ˇ°lotsˇ± for the purpose of LQAS), </span><i><span style=\"font-family:Verdana;\">i.e.</span></i><span style=\"font-family:Verdana;\">, chain and independent CPs. Upper and lower rate thresholds for CPs that sell low-quality medicines were predefined as 20% and 5%, respectively. Consumer and provider risks were predefined as 0.05 and 0.10, respectively. The calculated number of randomly selected CPs required in each lot was 36; then, sale of low-quality medicines in &gt;3 CPs implies a prevalence of &gt;20% of such CPs according to LQAS. A randomly selected brand of amoxicillin (selected as a quality indicator of medicines because it is both widely counterfeited and heat-sensitive) was purchased from each pharmacy by a ˇ°mystery shopperˇ±, checked for authenticity, and analyzed for drug content and content uniformity using a validated HPLC method. </span><span style=\"font-family:Verdana;\">Results: </span><span style=\"font-family:Verdana;\">Substandard amoxicillin was purchased in 9 pharmacies (4 chains and 5 independent). Both lots were thus rejected as unacceptable, which may indicate that consumers in Riyadh are at risk of purchasing substandard medicines at CPs. </span><span style=\"font-family:Verdana;\">Conclusions: </span><span style=\"font-family:Verdana;\">The quality of medicines sold in CPs in Riyadh did not meet our acceptability criterion, and appropriate intervention by decision makers is recommended. LQAS proved to be a practical, economical, and statistically valid sampling method for surveying the quality of medicines. It should enable decision makers to allocate resources for improvement more efficiently.</span></span>
%K Amoxicillin
%K Antibiotic
%K Quality of Medicines
%K Lot Quality Assurance Sampling
%K Saudi Arabia
%K Community Pharmacy
%U http://www.scirp.org/journal/PaperInformation.aspx?PaperID=37570