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Drugs, diagnostics and medical technology
Drugs, diagnostics and medical devices, and the regulators and standards that keep them safe: drug approval and trials, the pharmacopoeia, substandard medicines, generics, prices and pharmacovigilance. It serves GS3 answers on science and technology in health.
Showing 1 of 6 subjects, those that changed from 1 to 15 September 2026.Show all
Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission
Copy link to Indian Pharmacopoeia CommissionPrelims
A pharmacopoeia is the official book of standards a medicine must meet for identity, purity and strength, and India's is written by the Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission (IPC). Setting those standards is one half of the Commission's work; the other is watching what medicines and devices do once they are in use.
Works under
- Ministry of Health and Family Welfare
Publishes
- The Indian Pharmacopoeia, the official drug standards under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940
Runs
- Pharmacovigilance Programme of India
- Materiovigilance Programme of India
What changed
11 Sep 2026
4 Aug 2026
4 Aug 2026
- The WHO South East Asia Regulatory Network (SEARN) named the IPC its Regional Centre of Excellence in Pharmacovigilance.
- The IPC is also the network's Technical Centre in Quality of Medicines.
- The WHO South East Asia Regional Office set up SEARN in 2016.