The ninth edition of the Indian Pharmacopoeia was released by the Union minister for health and family welfare and chemicals and fertilizers, Dr Mansukh Mandaviya, at the Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission conference held in Delhi last month.
Pharmacopoeia lays down official rules for drugs manufactured and marketed in India and contributes to the quality control of medicines.
India is known to be the world’s largest supplier of generic medicines, accounting for about 20% of the global supply.
Mandaviya, who chaired the IPC conference 2022, said India needed to prepare a detailed plan for the pharma sector, focusing on local industries and the global market.
Union minister of state for health and family welfare Bharti Pravin Pawar was present at the conference whose theme was ‘Addressing Medicine Quality for the Future.’
Mandaviya said India had become the world’s pharmacy by becoming an expert in generic medicine, creating, producing, and supplying medication at an affordable cost, but stressed that the nation needed to strengthen its research in the pharma sector.
The minister hoped the Indian Pharmacopoeia would be acknowledged and appreciated globally, adding Afghanistan, Nepal, Ghana, and Mauritius had accepted it as a book of standards. However, he said India needed a plan to make more countries get the guidelines. He said India delivered affordable and accessible vaccines to 150 countries during the Covid pandemic but never compromised on the quality and standards.
Background of Pharmacopoeia
The Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission prints the Indian Pharmacopoeia, which lays down the official rules for drugs manufactured and marketed in India.
The Indian Pharmacopoeia standards are authentic and legally binding and help with the production, review, and distribution of medicines in India.
Indian Pharmacopoeia contains monographs that include 60 chemicals, amino acids, fatty acids, 21 vitamins, herbs, and herbal products, therapeutic products derived from biotechnology, human vaccines, and blood-related products.
The current global requirements have made it necessary for several monographs and general chapters to be updated for standardization across the globe.
