Meropenem Selection by The Buriram Hospital’s Drug Specification Protocol

Abstract

Background: The effective drug procurement ensures the availability of medication in specific quantity compiled with reasonable price and the acceptable quality. The department of pharmacy, Buriram hospital therefore developed the specification of Meropenem 1 gm for injection protocol for product selection and procurement by electronic auction process.
Objective: To introduce Meropenem 1 gm injection specification as protocol for medication procurement in fiscal year 2008 and 2009 and to present the effect of this procurement on the Meropenem cost.
Study design: Retrospective descriptive study
Method: Details of Meropem 1 gm injection specification method from Buriram’s electronic auction in fiscal years 2008 and 2009 were presented and compared the total cost of Meropenem purchased in each fiscal year.
Results: The buriram hospital’s drug specification protocol developed from the united states pharmacopoeia 27th edition and Ministry of Public Health’s drug specification guideline. The result revealed that the products from both original and generics companies meet the accept-able quality ranges as indicated ๒ the specification protocol. To ensure the quality of product, generic product was ramdomly sampling for analyze by the Department of Medical Sciences. The analytical result showed that the samples also meet the quality standard. Moreover, purchased generic Meropenem could significantly save 2,696,592 bahts and 1,340,325 baths in fiscal year 2008 and 2009 respectively.
Conclusions: Buriram hospital’s Meropenem specification protocal is an effective tool for selection of quality product at the reasonable price. Furthermore, regularly updated specification protocol could motivate the manufacturers to develop the product not only focusting on the cost, but also on the quality of product.
Key word: Drug specification protocal, Meropenem, Drug selection