Incompatibility of Paracetamol with Pediatric Suspensions Containing Amoxicillin, Azithromycin and Cefuroxime Axetil

The main objective of this work was to use the Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and FTIR spectroscopy to study the possible drug-drug or drug-excipient (s) interaction in case of concomitant oral administration of paracetamol with the most common used antibiotics for children. Amoxicillin, azithromycin, cefuroxime axetil and their commercially available suspensions, Amoxil®, Azithromax® and Zinnat® were used. DSC curves for paracetamol, pure antibiotics, commercially available antibiotics and all binary mixtures used in this study showed drug-drug or drug-excipient (s) physical interaction and indicated a possible chemical interaction. To confirm chemical drug-drug or drug-excipient (s) interaction additional ATR-IR spectra for all samples used in this study were obtained. Results obtained from ATR-IR spectra showed drug-excipient (s) interaction in Zinnat®, Azithromax® and binary mixture Azithromax®-paracetamol, while chemical drug-drug interaction was not observed. From this study it can be concluded that the concomitant oral administration of paracetamol with commercially available antibiotics used in this study is not recommended and duration of two hours between the oral administrations of these drugs is strongly recommended to avoid drug-drug or drug-excipient (s) interaction.