One of the most frequent searches I see that people perform when coming to Eye on FDA is this – "Are Canadian Drugs Safe"? And safety, in this day and age, is the name of the game.
As I've often noted, in the 1990s we were all about access – we wanted new drugs approved more quickly and we wanted access to them sooner rather than later. That resulted in some policy decisions that created a new infrastructure for drug consideration that indeed brought drugs to the market faster, shortening approval times. In the 2000s though, things changed. We were less concerned with access and became more concerned with quality. And one can hardly read news these days without reading about some recall or some concern being expressed. The issue of quality has become issue number 1.
Enter the U.S. Pharmacopeia. Ever heard of it? Many haven't. But it is they who set the quality standards for drug products. Is it a U.S. agency? You might think so, but it's not. So what is it then and how does it work? The first podcast below will give you some insight into the agency.
The second is about recent activity. Last week, the U.S. Pharmacopeia launched a new campaign called Advancing Public Health 
Through Quality Standards. The USP is all about developing standards for medications, dietary supplements, food ingredients and supply chain issues.
I had the pleasure of chatting with Dr. Roger L. Williams, CEO of the USP to talk about what the campaign is designed to accomplish and what it is that the USP actually does. There are two installments of podcasting here – the first which talks about what the USP does, and the second geared to the campaign itself.
