PHARMACOPOEIA

also spelled Pharmacopeia, a book published by a government, or otherwise under official sanction, to provide standards of identity, quality, and strength for the medicinals representing the best practice and teaching of medicine. The primary function of a pharmacopoeia is to describe each drug on the selected list and to specify methods for determining its identity, quality, and strength. The provisions of the pharmacopoeia are binding upon all who produce drugs and who dispense them. The task of compiling most pharmacopoeias is carried out by experts in the professions of medicine, chemistry, and pharmacy at the request of the agency undertaking the compilation. Most programs are financed from government funds, but the British Pharmacopoeia and the United States Pharmacopeia are written by private, nonprofit organizations with the sanction of their respective governments. The proceeds of their sale support the revision. Most countries not having a national pharmacopoeia have adopted one of another nation (or nations) or, in some cases, the international pharmacopoeia. The Pharmacopoea Internationalis was put forward by the World Health Organization in 1951 as a recommendation aimed at minimizing or eliminating variations among national pharmacopoeial standards.