Quality of Different Brands of Metronidazole Benzoate Oral Suspensions Available at Jimma Town, Southwest Ethiopia: Pharmaceuticals Quality Study

Background: Poor quality drugs include substandard and counterfeit medicines. Poor quality antibiotics selectively kill the susceptible strain and leaves resistant strain to multiply. Metronidazole is a broad spectrum antibiotic whose effectiveness depends up on a dose administered to the patient. Objective: The aim of the study is to assess the quality of different brands of metronidazole Benzoate oral suspension available in Jimma town, West Ethiopia. Methods: Cross-sectional study was conducted in Jimma town, West Ethiopia from Feb 08 – Mar 28, 2018. The assay result of all the seven brands of Metronidazole Benzoate oral suspensions was entered to statistical package for social sciences software version 24.0 for windows. Then, one way analysis of variance was performed using Tukey test to determine whether there exists significant difference in assay result of the brands (p<0.05). Result: All the seven Metronidazole benzoate oral suspensions assessed in this study passed British Pharmacopoeia 2013 specification of identity test of the drug. All the brands passed the assay test and total aerobic microbial count specification United States Pharmacopoeia 2015. The highest percentage of drug content was obtained for Metrolag, 105.56%, while the least content for Mizel, 93.12%. However, statistical comparison of drug contents at 95% confidence interval indicates that there is significant difference in drug content within and among the seven brands of Metronidazole benzoate oral suspensions (p<0.05). The pH of all the brands was with in United States Pharmacopoeia 2015 specification limit.