DRUG QUALITY SCREENING IN DEVELOPING-COUNTRIES - ESTABLISHMENT OF AN APPROPRIATE LABORATORY IN SWAZILAND

A simple, low-cost, accurate thin-layer chromatography (TLC) method ha s been used to establish the first drug quality screening laboratory i n Swaziland. For this purpose, office space at the central medical sto res was first converted into a simple laboratory. Basic equipment, sup plies, and materials were pur chased, existing manpower was trained to perform accurately the TLC procedure, and a system was established fo r the qualitative/quantitative screening of selected drugs purchased b y the Ministry of Health prior to their distribution to user facilitie s. The TLC method described can be used to set up similar low-cost, dr ug quality screening laboratories in other developing countries where analytical chemistry expertise is lacking, resources are scarce, and s ophisticated analytical laboratories to assess drug quality are not av ailable.