(THE GIST OF PIB) Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission

(October-2023)

Recently, the Pharmacopoeial Discussion Group (PDG) announced the Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission (IPC) as a PDG member during PDG Stakeholder’s meeting in Hyderabad.
After 1 year of pilot phase, based on IPC’s involvement, contribution and future potential, the decision on inclusion as permanent member of PDG was taken.

It is an autonomous Institution of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Govt. of India.
It is created to set standards of drugs in the country.
Functions:
Its basic function is to update regularly the standards of drugs commonly required for treatment of diseases prevailing in this region.
It publishes official documents for improving Quality of Medicines by way of adding new and updating existing monographs in the form of Indian Pharmacopoeia (IP).
It further promotes rational use of generic medicines by publishing National Formulary of India.
It prescribes standards for identity, purity and strength of drugs essentially required from health care perspective of human beings and animals.
It also provides IP Reference Substances (IPRS) which act as a finger print for identification of an article under test and its purity as prescribed in IP.