A Comparative Quality Study of Selected Locally Manufactured and Imported Medicines in Yemeni Market

Objective: In a poor country like Yemen, the cost is a crucial factor in determining the accessibility of patient to health care services. In such situations, locally manufactured medicines seem like an attractive choice due to their cheaper prices. In our work, the quality control of selected pharmaceutical products (original and locally manufactured medicines containing esomperazole and hyoscine butylbromide) was investigated. Methods: Standard USP quality control tests (disintegration, friability, dissolution, and content assay) were run on all the tested products. Results: When we compared between the quality of selected locally manufactured medicines, another generic alternative available in the Yemeni market, and the original parent drug, we observed that the Yemeni products have equal quality compared to original products and superior quality to the other imported generic product. Conclusion: A rational substitution for the expensive original pharmaceutical products can be carried out using high quality locally manufactured generic products. Key Words: Quality control studies, comparative evaluation, locally manufactured medicines, esomeperazole, and hyoscine butylbromide.