USP releases global compendium of quality medicines
Demonstrating the ever-growing need for global public standards for the quality of medicines, the U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention (USP) announced the expansion of its Medicines Compendium (MC). The USP MC is a free, online resource of quality standards for medicines approved in any country. It was launched in July of 2011 with one Expert Committee based in South Asia (India). The USP MC represents an innovative approach to make available good public testing standards for a marketed medicine and its ingredients. The USP MC provides monographs, general chapters, and allied reference materials for chemical and biologic medicines and their ingredients, including drug substances and excipients. The early success of the MC has lead to the creation of two new Expert Committees (in addition to a second EC convened in January of this year in East Asia) and to the expansion and enhancement of the MC website. "I have been gratified by advances of the Medicines Compendium du...