COMPARATIVE PHYSICAL STUDIES OF ATENOLOL BRANDS AVAILABLE IN LIBYAN DRUG MARKET
Abstract
Atenolol is a cardioselective beta1-adrenergic receptor blocking agent prescribed for treatment of hypertension, angina pectoris and cardiac arrhythmias. However, there are many Atenolol brands marketed in Libya. The objective of this study was to evaluate the quality of five commercial Atenolol (100 mg) products available on the Libyan market. We carried out a survey on the price of all Atenolol tablet products and assessed their quality. To assess quality, all products were examined visually for their organoleptic properties, tested for weight uniformity, friability, disintegration, and moisture content assayed. We carried out a physical comparison of all Atenolol tablet products and assessed their quality. To assess quality, all products of Atenolol such as: Atenolol tablets, Actavis United Kingdom, Totamol tablets WOCKHARDT , United Kingdom, Atenolol Normon Spain, Atenolol Film Coated tablets, BRISTOL, United Kingdom and Hypoten tablets, HIKMA Amman–Jordan.  Based on our testing procedure, all Atenolol five brands were showed the fulfilment of the compendial specification for uniformity of weight, disintegration and limit of moisture content, except in case of hardness test all the brands showed softer than Hypoten tablets.  All the brands are within their expiry dates but there is major difference in price. Keywords: Atenolol, β-blockers, Hypertension, Friability, Disintegration test, Libyan market.References
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