Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission: In News
The Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission (IPC) has been recognised as the World Health Organization South-East Asia Regulatory Network (WHO-SEARN) Regional Centre of Excellence in Pharmacovigilance and the Technical Centre in Quality.
- It is an autonomous institution of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.
- It is created to set standards of drugs in the country.
- Its basic function is to regularly update 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 the health care perspective of human beings and animals.
- It also provides IP Reference Substances (IPRS) which act as a fingerprint for identification of an article under test and its purity as prescribed in IP.
World Health Organization South-East Asia Regulatory Network:
- It is a collaborative platform established by the World Health Organization (WHO) South-East Asia Regional Office (SEARO) to strengthen regulatory systems across Member States.
- It was established in 2016.
- SEARN has facilitated cooperation among National Regulatory Authorities through knowledge sharing, regulatory convergence, capacity building, and reliance mechanisms.
- The network operates through thematic working groups focusing on key regulatory functions, including quality assurance, pharmacovigilance, clinical trials oversight, regulatory preparedness, and medical device regulation.
