Specifications for eye-drops.

Correspondence MEDIALJOUH How much easier it would be if platelet stickiness were expressed as the percentage of sticky platelets rather than as the percentage of non-sticky platelets, and how much more logical. That is: Platelet stickiness (%)= (Original Count minus Second Count) x 100 Original Count With this simple transformation a high value would indicate a high degree of sticki-ness, and the need for mathematical gymnastics from the reader would disappear. I would have thought that this subject is still sufficiently young to allow this break with tradition in the interests of simplicity. SIR,-The executive councils' recent circular to doctors and chemists (E.C.N. 563) concerning the new B.P.C. specifications for eye-drops has accomplished two things; it has confused the prescriber and appears to have discriminated strongly against branded products. As the makers of the Albucid brand of sulphacetamide eye-drops, with wide experience in this field, we feel that certain facts should be made clear to all users of these preparations. The circular states that:. the brand products of sulphacetamide in their present form do not meet the B.P.C. requirements." This could imply that branded products (including Albucid) fall short of a certain standard of performance or purity. This is particularly ironic in view of the history of Albucid, which has set standards of production and purity which have only gradually been approached over the 18 years during which the B.P.C. have issued six revisions in formulation and sterility specifications in the search for a satisfactory product. How do the brand and B.P.C. preparations compare today ? The B.P.C. calls for two tests on the finished product, assay, and sterility testing. Albucid requires seven further tests before it is released for sale. The difference between the preparations are, and have been, important; for example, Albucid has always been marketed as a sterile preparation, and it is nearly twenty years since filtration was adopted by us as the only satisfactory method of sterilizing a product of this nature. On the other hand, it is only with the recent publication of the 1966 Supplement that the B.P.C. has specially stipulated that eye-drops must be sterile, and recommended filtration as the most suitable method for sterilizing those containing sulph-acetamide. Under these circumstances the executive councils' statement falls rather oddly on the ear. A further instruction to prescribers standardizes the pack size for these preparations at 10 ml. This is quite at variance with most …