Quality Matters | U.S. Pharmacopeia Blog

// October 13, 2021

Standards Enable a Strong Medicines Supply Chain

Standards play an important role in the global medicines supply chain, helping governments and manufacturers increase the availability of safe, quality medicines, as well as building patient and health provider trust. In fact, quality standards are a big reason why we in the U.S. can get a prescription filled at our neighborhood pharmacy and trust that the medicine we receive will be safe and work as it should.

Rob Anderson

The Role of Standards in Supporting Quality Vaccines Manufacturing and Distribution

Medicines

// July 30, 2020

The Role of Standards in Supporting Quality Vaccines Manufacturing and Distribution...

The scale and speed of the global vaccine research and development effort in response to COVID-19 is unprecedented.

John Kokai-Kun, Ph.D.

Medicines

// March 12, 2021

Nitrosamine Impurities in Medicines: Preventing history from repeating itself...

The presence of objectionable levels of chemical impurities in pharmaceuticals can have serious public health impacts. Not only do they pose a risk of harm to patients, but the discovery of unacceptable levels of impurities in trusted medicines can also undermine public confidence in the quality of drug products. Due to the potentially serious risk to public health, impurities in pharmaceuticals are strictly regulated.

Edwin Gump, PhD

Supply Chain

// October 13, 2021

Standards Enable a Strong Medicines Supply Chain

Rob Anderson

Limited drug sources pose risks to patient safety

Medicines

// May 28, 2020

Limited drug sources pose risks to patient safety

The spread of COVID-19 has been a wake-up call to the world about dangers posed by over-reliance on single-country sources in the global medicine supply chain.

Fouad Atouf, Ph.D.

A new generation of tools and standards for biologic medicine quality

Medicines

// November 20, 2019

A new generation of tools and standards for biologic medicine quality...

Patients, their families and health care providers alike care about the quality of their medicines. For nearly 200 years, USP has contributed to the quality of medicines by providing publicly-available standards.

Ron Piervincenzi, Ph.D.

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Quality Medicines for Malaria

Global Health

// May 24, 2018

Quality Medicines for Malaria

Marie Lamy with Asia Pacific Leaders Malaria Alliance discusses how one country is tackling drug resistance in order to eradicate Malaria.

Rob Anderson

Poor quality medicines and drug resistance

Global Health

// May 24, 2018

Poor quality medicines and drug resistance

Harvard professor and physician Ashish Jha describes how poor quality medicines create the perfect opportunity for superbugs.

Rob Anderson

Quality medicines and sub-Saharan Africa

Global Health

// May 24, 2018

Quality medicines and sub-Saharan Africa

Global health advocate Mirfin Moundu talks about the dangers of poor quality medicines and how they are a threat to many Africans in treating infectious diseases and non-communicable diseases.

Rob Anderson

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Best Practices in State-Level Procurement in India During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Adapting Lessons from a USP Study in Kerala

Medicines

// September 09, 2021

Best Practices in State-Level Procurement in India During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Adap...

In the global race to procure vaccines, India—the world’s leading supplier of generic medicines—faces an acute shortage of COVID-19 vaccines. Often dubbed the world’s pharmacy, India must now obtain enough vaccines for its own people. The federal government is in charge of procuring COVID-19 vaccines. However, significant challenges in quality assurance—including storage, distribution, and getting shots into arms at the last mile—remain at the state level.

Kishor Mogulluru

Medicines

// August 18, 2021

USP Expands Global COVID-19 Response to Tackle Substandard & Falsified Vaccines...

The challenges posed by COVID-19 transcend international borders and require global solutions. This includes addressing the potential for substandard and falsified (SSF) COVID-19 vaccines, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. At the U.S.

Jaap Venema

Fostering Broader Access to Quality -assured COVID-19 Vaccines from Development to Distribution

Medicines

// May 17, 2021

Fostering Broader Access to Quality-assured COVID-19 Vaccines from Development to Dis...

Those stakeholders involved in the development and distribution of vaccines – including developers, manufacturers, distributors, and healthcare practitioners – must all work together to maintain the quality of authorized and approved COVID-19 vaccines.

Anthony Lakavage, J.D.

Medicines

// May 05, 2021

Manufacturing COVID-19 vaccines in Africa

While the global vaccination effort to curb the spread of COVID-19 continues to ramp up worldwide, access to COVID-19 vaccines, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, remains staggeringly low. In fact, low- and middle-income countries received less than one percent of available doses.

Perrer Tosso, Ph.D.

Medicines

// April 21, 2021

USP Volunteer Profile: Developing the COVID-19 Vaccine Handling Toolkit...

USP’s success in its mission to improve global public health through creation of standards and related programs depends in large part on the work of volunteers.

Medicines

// April 01, 2021

COVID-19 Vaccine Handling: Maximizing Doses & Public Confidence...

USP’s COVID-19 Vaccine Handling Toolkit is designed to help address the challenges nurses and other healthcare providers face every day in preparing, distributing and administering essential vaccines.