Quality Testing and Antimicrobial Activity of Norfloxacin in Pakistan

Background: There are 400 licensed pharmaceutical companies in Pakistan; one third of Pakistan total consumption of pharmaceuticals is imported. Market potential is good for antibiotics, vaccines, hormones etc. Introduction: High performance liquid chromatography is an important tool for routine determination of antimicrobial drugs with specific emphasis on fluoroquinolones. The quality testing of norfloxacin was also done by Liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry. Antibacterial activity of norfloxacin is good for aerobic gram negative bacteria, including Enterobacteriaceae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. It has moderate antibacterial activity against gram positive microorganisms, such as staphylococci; anaerobic bacteria are generally resistant.Method: Our investigation focuses on the quality testing of brands of Norfloxacin available in market with variety of trade names. Reverse phase chromatographic technique RP-HPLC was used for the quality testing of norfloxacin at temperature of 35°C and a flow rate of 0.8ml/ml with Isocratic plution. Disk diffusion techniquewas used to check the antibacterial activity of norfloxacin against Proteus mirabilis, Klebsiella pnemoniae, Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Different brands of Norfloxacin (noroxin, uracin, qunor, urid , uroquin, webnor, bactinor, uritac , floxacin, norocin and ecoflaxin) from pharmaceutical companies A, B C, D, F , G , H, I, J & and K were collected from markets of Rawalpindi and Islamabad (Pakistan). The claimed concentration of tablet was 400mg. Result: The quality testing of norfloxacin with sample and standard showed that brands from companies C and F Qunor, Webnor did not qualify the quality testing, they were of medium standard for the treatment of infections while H Company with a brand Uritac stands highest for quality test. Disk diffusion technique showed that all brands of norfloxacin were sensitive against the mentioned bacteria.Conclusion: This research concluded that special effective measures should be taken by all the pharmaceutical companies in Pakistan to check the quality standards of pharmaceuticals especially antibiotics before manufacturing. If they qualify the quality standards they will be effective to treat infections, if they are of low standard it would be difficult for the clinician to advise the correct amount of dosage for patient.