(ARA) - From aspirin to antibiotics and even dietary supplements, pharmaceuticals play a major role in the lives of many Americans on a daily basis. Consumers place their trust in their doctors and pharmacists to get the proper medicines to them, but who helps assure the quality of the products that doctors prescribe and pharmacists dispense?

The United States Pharmacopeia (USP) plays an important role in protecting the American public's health. Through its standard-setting activities for prescription and over-the-counter drugs, dietary supplements, health care technologies, and ingredients for all of these products, USP’s standards help companies produce quality products and improve the processes used to produce them.

USP establishes enforceable standards for pharmaceutical product identity, strength, quality, and purity in order to help assure consumers that the product they use will perform as expected. Within the United States, USP standards are officially recognized in the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. This act is law and is enforceable by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). U.S. pharmaceutical manufacturers must comply with USP standards. Some pharmaceutical and dietary supplement manufacturers place the USP initials on their product's container to inform consumers that their products meet USP standards.

USP public health programs that make a difference!

USP also provides standards for dietary supplements and in addition has a verification program to help ensure their quality. USP developed this program in response to the public's increasing concerns about the quality of dietary supplements in the marketplace. Through compliance testing and document review, adherence to good manufacturing principles, and post-marketing surveillance, USP's verification program is designed to help ensure that dietary supplement products contain the declared ingredients in the stated quantities. Products that have been verified under the program are entitled to bear the special USP mark. Further information about USP’s verification program is available at www.uspverified.org.

In addition, USP operates two medication error reporting, tracking, and analysis programs: the Medication Errors Reporting (MER) Program (operated in collaboration with the Institute for Safe Medication Practices), and MEDMARX. MEDMARX is an Internet-accessible database for hospitals to report and track medication errors anonymously. Further information about MEDMARX is available at www.medmarx.com.

For more information about USP, visit www.usp.org.

Courtesy of ARA Content