Sara Rahimkhani
1, Saeed Ghanbarzadeh
2, Ali Nokhodchi
3,4, Hamed Hamishehkar
5*1 Biotechnology Research Center and School of Pharmacy, International Branch-Aras, Tabriz University of Medical Science, Tabriz, Iran
2 Zanjan Pharmaceutical Nanotechnology Research Center, and Department of Pharmaceutics, Faculty of Pharmacy, Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, Zanjan, Iran
3 Research Center for Pharmaceutical Nanotechnology, Tabriz University of Medical Science, Tabriz, Iran
4 School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton BN1 9QG, United Kingdom
5 Drug Applied Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran
Abstract
Background: Due to the high
rate of pulmonary diseases, respiratory drug delivery systems have been
attracted excessive attention for the past decades. Because of limitations and
growing drug bill, physicians are encouraged to
prescribe generically whenever possible. The purpose of this study was to
evaluate whether there was any significant difference in aerosolization
performance between a reference brand Salbutamol (A) Metered Dose Inhalers
(MDIs) and two generic products (B and C).
Methods: The
aerosolization performance of MDIs was evaluated by calculating aerosolization
indexes including fine particle fraction (FPF), fine
particle dose (FPD), geometric standard deviation (GSD) and mass median
aerodynamic diameters (MMAD) by using the next generation impactor. Results: Although aerosolization indexes
of MDI A were superior than the Iranian brands, but the differences
were not statistically significant. Conclusion:
These results verified that generic MDIs deliver similar quantities of
Salbutamol to the reference brand and aerosolization
performance parameters of generic Salbutamol MDIs did not differ
significantly from the reference brand.