Microbiological quality of pharmaceutical products in Bangladesh: current research perspective

Pharmaceutical industrialization in Bangladesh, both by multinational and local companies, has increased significantly in the last two decades. Most of the pharmaceutical products are found to be therapeutically competent to meet the demands of general population satisfactorily. However, complaints regarding the compromised quality of the products stored in markets are also reported very often. In order to ensure the overall drug user safety, the present review discussed the prime requirements for maintaining the desired microbiological quality of the commonly used pharmaceutical products in Bangladesh. Information relating to the prevalence of bacteria, fungi and the specific pathogens has been collected mostly from the recent researches conducted on an array of finished pharmaceutical medicaments. All data, achieved by means of traditional microbiological and biochemical analyses as described in the published papers cited in this review, have been further critically analyzed in context to the recommended microbial limits, user safety and the legislative aspects. Microbial contamination usually degrades the product quality as well as the product stability, which in turn creates treatment complications. Moreover, through microbial spoilage within the medicament, active drug constituents may be transformed to less potent or chemically inactive forms. Contamination by bacteria and fungi generally occur either from raw materials, manufacturing environment or at the storage stage which may hinder the consumer safety. This review article presented some valid evidences for microbial contamination in the pharmaceutical finished products in Bangladesh and discusses about possible remedies to improve the overall management of public health.