Abstract

Antimalarial drugs have been used over the years to control the impact of malaria infection. They sometimes suffer from inefficacy, suboptimal dose administration, and/or parasite resistance. Monitoring antimalarial drug concentrations and their metabolites in biological matrices becomes imperative to elucidate any case of inefficacy, inadequate drug concentration, suboptimal dose, or drug-resistant parasites. The present study conducted a critical assessment and comparison of trends and bioanalytical methods used for estimating the pharmacokinetic profiles of antimalarial drugs used in Africa between 1985 and 2021. Findings indicated random procedural inadequacies, inconsistencies, poor compliance to standards and protocols and poor documentation approaches, all of which were capable of resulting in false or misleading interpretations of results. Suggestions on how to improve method performance, why and how to select a particular method for a specific matrix, results reporting and other important standard procedural ethics on the subject are highlighted. Africans and Africa as a continent must step up and intensify research efforts that capture and accommodate African peculiarities and economic well-being. This review presents the current state of the bioanalytical approaches to antimalarial drugs and calls for an adjustment to tackle antimalarial drug treatment failure ab initio.