United States Pharmacopeia standards development

United States Pharmacopeia. Reference standards are requited in many USP and NF tests, and in a few FCC tests. The USPC distributes such standards domestically and has authorized international distribution by a number of organizations or companies. There are well over 1000 USP Reference Standards, including several for melting points, and also specimens of narcotics and other controlled substances. New standards are constantly under development as needed in various USP, NF, and FCC testing methods. 

Department of Standards Development, United States Pharmacopeia, Rockville, Maryland, U.S.A. 

Standards established by the United States Pharmacopeia (USP) are accepted worldwide as the highest assurance of the quality of medicines and other products used to improve the health of the public. We discuss the development of the publication and the organization, and its current and future initiatives toward promotion of worldwide health. 

Since the U.S. Congress passed Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act in October 1994, the landscape of the dietary supplement industry has changed in the United States dramatically. In fact, as early as the late 1980s, the U.S. Pharmacopeia s elected Council of Experts (then known as the USP Committee of Revision) was evoking great interest in the development and establishment of public standards for the multitude of multivitamin and multivitamin-mineral combination products as well other nutritional supplement products marketed in the United States. 

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