Assessment of the supply, storage and stability of donated medicines

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the quality of donation-based procurement and storage processes, as well as the stability of medicines in a medicine bank operated by a public social assistance institution.  Materials and methods: This study used a descriptive, cross-sectional design. Procurement and storage quality were assessed using checklists based on World Health Organization guidelines and Mexican Official Standard NOM-059-SSA1-2015. For the stability testing, two medicines were selected according to their inventory turnover: paracetamol 500 mg tablets and effervescent acetylsalicylic acid 300 mg tablets. Physical and chemical tests were performed in accordance with NOM-073-SSA1-2015 and the Mexican Pharmacopeia.

Results: Supply obtained a compliance of 21% and storage of 18%, which indicates low compliance with the regulatory criteria considered. In the stability analysis, paracetamol complied with 50% of the tests carried out and acetylsalicylic acid complied with 46%. The main deficiencies were related to packaging conditioning, airtightness, resistance to rupture, moisture content, titration and dissolution.

Conclusions: Deficiencies were identified in the supply and storage processes, as well as modifications in the stability of the drugs analyzed. These findings support the need to strengthen control and oversight mechanisms in drug redistribution systems to ensure safe access to treatments in vulnerable populations.

Keywords: Drug dispensaries; Drug storage; Quality control; Drug stability, Health services.