World Health Organization Practice

Preventive medicine through vaccination continues to be the most cost-effective pubHc health practice, even with the drastic advance in modern medicine. Mass vaccination programs have eradicated smallpox from the earth. The World Health Organization (WHO) has a major campaign underway to eradicate poHo by the year 2000. The development of vaccines has saved millions of Hves and prevented many more from suffering. However, there are stiU many diseases without effective vaccines, such as malaria. With the recent emergence of antibiotic-resistance strains and exotic vimses, an effective vaccine development program becomes a top priority of pubHc health poHcy. 

Good manufacturing practices for pharmaceutical products. In WHO Expert Committee on Specifications for Pharmaceutical Preparations. Thirty-second report. Geneva, World Health Organization, 1992 (WHO Technical Report Series, No. 823, Annex 1). 

The World Health Organization (WHO) in its May 2002 report estimated that currently up to 80% of the African people and a significant percentage of the worldwide population still practice some form of traditional medical treatment. Typically, these treatments are in the forms of decoctions, tinctures, syrups, or ointments with plant or animal products (see Exhibit 3.1). 

While nicotine is the primary active pharmacological agent, tobacco has been shown to be a particularly effective vehicle for delivery of nicotine (US Food and Drug Administration 1995 Hurt and Robertson 1998 Slade et al. 1995 World Health Organization 2001). In fact, published research has determined that tobacco-delivered nicotine is not only more toxic, but more addictive than nicotine in a pure form (e.g., nicotine replacement therapy) (Henningfleld et al. 2000 Royal College of Physicians 2000). As noted by a BW scientist in 1990 Nicotine alone in smoke is not practical, nor are extreme tar/nicotine ratios, since nicotine is too irritating -other substances are required for sensoric reasons (Baker 1990). 

World Health Organization (WHO). Technical Report Series, No. 850. Annex 3 Guidelines for Good Clinical Practice (GCP) for Trials on Pharmaceutical Products. Geneva, Switzerland World Health Organization, 1995 (Modified 2000). 

WHO. Guidelines for good clinical practice (GCP) for trials on pharmaceutical products. Geneva World Health Organization 1995 [cited 2008 Jan 13]. (WHO Technical report series no. 850, annex 3). Available from URL http //www.who.int/ medicines/library/par/ggcp/ GGCP.shtml... 

WHO. Quality assurance of pharmaceuticals. A compendium of guidelines and related materials, vol 2, 2nd update ed. Good manufacturing practices and inspection. Geneva World Health Organization 2007. 

Hyman, S.E. (2000) The genetics of mental illness implications for practice. Bull World Health Organ 78 455-463. 

Anon. Good Manufacturing Practices Supplementary Guidelines for the Manufacture of Herbal Medicinal Products. WHO Technical Report Series No. 863. Geneva, Switzerland World Health Organization, 1996 109-113. 

World Health Organization (WHO) (2006), WHO expert committee on specifications for pharmaceutical preparations (fortieth report)—Supplementary guidelines on good manufacturing practices (GMP) Validation, WHO, Geneva. 

Chaloner-Larsson, G, Anderson, R., and Egan, A. A WHO Guide to Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) Requirements, 1997, World Health Organization, Geneva. 

The evaluation of the safety of a new excipient as a food additive could be accomplished by the submission of a food additive petition to the United Nations expert panel operating under the auspices of the FAO and the World Health Organization known as the JECFA. A JECFA review could serve as a separate independent safety review to support the new excipient for potential use in drug products. Alternatively, the safety of a new excipient could be evaluated through the food additive petition processes, as currently in practice both in the United States and the EU, assuming that the new excipient can be demonstrated to have a technological function as a food additive. 

Joel Lexchin is an Associate Professor in the School of Health Policy and Management at York University and a practicing emergency physician in Toronto. He has been a consultant on pharmaceutical issues for the governments of Ontario, Canada, and New Zealand as well as the World Health Organization and the Australian National Prescribing Service. 

Internationally, the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) periodically considers food additives, including antioxidants, on the basis of all available scientific data to establish acceptable daily intake levels (92) and specifications on the identity and purity of the additives. The conclusions of JECFA are published in numerous reports and technological summaries by the World Health Organization (WHO) as the WHO Technical Report Series and WHO Food Additives Series. Such information provided by JECFA is used by the Joint FAO/ WHO Codex Alimentarius Commission in implementing the Joint FAO/WHO Standards Program, which was established to elaborate international standards for foods to protect the health of consumers, to ensure fair practices in food trade, and to facilitate international trade (90). 

World Health Organization. WHO Guidelines on the Good Manufacturing Practices for Pharmaceutical Products. Technical Report Series, no. 823, thirty-second report, Geneva (1992). 

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