Unit 1 Description of a Pharmacy Grammar

Standards

While the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has the legal responsibility for deciding whether a drug may be distributed and sold, there are definite standards for drugs set by an independent committee of physicians, pharmacologists, pharmacists and manufacturers. This committee is called the United States Pharmacopeia (USP). Two important standards of the USP are that a drug must be clinically useful (useful for patients) and available in pure form (made by good manufacturing methods). If a drug has USP after its name, it has met with the standards of the Pharmacopeia. A list of drugs is published by the USP every 5 years but not all the drugs are listed in it. The National Formulary (NF) is a larger list of drugs which meets purity standards. The letters USP and NF after a drug indicate that the manufacturer claims his product conforms to USP or NF standards. It is up to the FDA to inspect and enforce the claims of drug manufacturers.