2 Yeditepe Üniversitesi, Eczacılık Fakültesi, İstanbul, Türkiye
3 Yeditepe Sağlık Hizmetleri, İstanbul, Türkiye
4 Hacettepe Üniversitesi, Eczacılık Fakültesi Farmakoloji ABD, Ankara, Türkiye DOI : 10.12991/201014448 Compounded drugs in pharmacies constitute negligible rate in the whole drug utilization. However, compounded drugs sometimes do not meet required standards and unfortunately their pharmaceutical specifications are not regularly controlled. In the present study, the amount of nitroglycerin active ingredient was measured in 23 nitroglycerin (0.4%) ointment samples prepared in 23 community pharmacies. In addition to the ingredient, the packaging and labeling were also evaluated.
Our findings showed that 0.4% nitroglycerin ointment was prepared in only 4% of the pharmacies admitted. None of the compounded drugs met the acceptable (0.36-0.44%) range for 0.4% nitroglycerin content. Furthermore, nine of them were below the measurable value (<0.008%). The highest concentration of the compounded drugs was found 0.24%. Only three samples met the required active ingredient amount in terms of nitroglycerin and all of them were the pharmaceutical preparations of Rectogesic® with different serial numbers. Moreover, preparations compounded in the pharmacies lacked a proper packaging and labeling. We may conclude that there is a difficulty in accessing the above mentioned medication since the ointment was available in only 4% of the pharmacies and none of the preparations contained enough active ingredient. Only a few had proper package and adequate labeling. It seems that a regular auditing needs to be conducted for compounded drugs in the pharmacies.
Keywords : Pharmacy, pharmacist, compounding, nitroglycerin ointment