USP and Chinese Pharmacopeia Extend Partnership
US and Chinese pharmacopeial standards groups commit to collaboration on standards for drug safety.
The United States Pharmacopeial Convention (USP) and the Chinese Pharmacopoeial Commission (ChP) have renewed an agreement to work together to collaborate to strengthen pharmacopeial standards as a means of assuring better patient and consumer care in China and the United States. The organizations announced the agreement on Oct. 17, 2016.
The organizations first established a relationship for cooperation and exchange when USP visited China in 1990. In 2005, an initial agreement between the partners was signed. The latest agreement establishes a framework for their cooperative engagement over the next three years.
Under this revised agreement, the two partners will intensify efforts to strengthen standards in respective pharmacopoeias, collaborate at the leadership level, exchange standards information and scientific personnel, and participate in joint standard-setting and harmonization activities, USP reports.
“The USP and Chinese Pharmacopoeia share a common goal of improving the quality and safety of medicines in the global supply chain, and creating positive synergies among all of the world’s pharmacopoeias to improve public health,” said Ron Piervincenzi, USP CEO in a press statement. “This renewed commitment between the organizations builds on our deep commitment to quality.”
“The partnership between ChP and USP is an example of the type of multilateral cooperation that is needed to overcome the challenges of globalization,” said Mr. Wei Zhang, ChP’s secretary-general. “We have made great strides in standards development with the release of the 2015 Edition of the Chinese Pharmacopeia, and are confident that through this partnership we will continue to improve the standards we set,” he said.
The pharmacopeias jointly hosted a workshop at USP, with delegates from both organizations and participants from the pharmaceutical industry and regulatory agencies. Topics included the need for harmonized, up-to-date global quality standards for high-impact excipients.
