What are the other initiatives of IPC and the way ahead?

IPC is an autonomous institution under the Union Health Ministry to deal with matters relating to timely publication of the IP. The IP is the official book of standards for drugs to specify the standards of identity, purity and strength of the drugs imported, manufactured for sale, stocked or exhibited for sale or distributed in India. The IPC has published draft monograph revision proposals for stakeholders’ recommendations and comments by February 20, 2023. These are to be included in Indian Pharmacopoeia (IP) Addendum 2024 with tentative effective date of April, 2024. In order to improve the quality of drugs sold in the country, the Union Health Ministry released the 9th edition of IP 2022 in July last year containing 92 new monographs for drugs, 12 new general chapters, 1,245 monographs for formulations, 930 monographs for active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) as well as dissolution specifications for all prolonged release formulations. This has led to the total number of 3,152 monographs in the current edition of IP. Several monographs and general chapters have also been revised to update them as per current global requirements and to harmonize with other pharmacopoeias like the USP and the BP among others.