Medicines

As personalized therapies have become a reality rather than a distant promise, the tools needed to ensure the quality of these medicines grow increasingly important.

USP was founded nearly 200 years ago by eleven doctors who wanted to ensure that the nation had access to quality medicines. They put together the first pharmacopeia, a book of recipes for making tinctures, extracts, and other medicines.

As government agencies consider solutions to the growing opioid crisis, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently sought public comment about ways to best address this national emergency.

In conversations about the role of quality standards in public health, you might come across the words “compendia” and “compendial.” At USP, terms like “compendial approaches,” “compendial standards,” and “compendial tools” are part of our everyday vocabulary.