On December 11, 2025, Government of India (GoI) and Liberia signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to enhance cooperation in pharmacopoeia, focusing on shared quality standards for medicines.
- The MoU was signed by Manoj Bihari Verma, India’s Ambassador to Liberia, and Dr. Louise M. Kpoto, Health Minister of Liberia, in Monrovia, Liberia.
Exam Hints:
- What? MoU signed
- Entities: India and Liberia
- Where? In Monrovia (Liberia)
- Purpose: To strengthen cooperation in the field of Pharmacopoeia
- Globally Recognized Pharmacopoeias: IP, BP, JP, USP, EP, International Pharmacopoeia by WHO
- IP Publisher: Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission
- Latest Edition: IP 2022
Key Details of MoU :
Adoption : The MoU allows Liberia to adopt or reference the Indian Pharmacopoeia (IP) for establishing quality standards for medicines, promoting harmonized rules and benchmarks between India and Liberia.
Quality Testing Alignment: Under the agreement, India and Liberia will follow similar procedures for testing and verifying the quality of medicines, ensuring consistency and safety across both countries.
About Pharmacopoeia:
Overview: Pharmacopoeias are official books of drug standards used by governments and health regulators to ensure the quality, purity, identity, and strength of medicines.
- A drug must meet pharmacopoeia standards to be approved, manufactured, or sold in a country.
Key Components: It contains Monographs of medicines, manufacturing and testing standards, analytical methods, reference standards, and guidelines for storage and packing.
Monographs: It is a detailed document that includes Name of the drug, Description, Identification tests, Assay Methods, Purity tests, Dosage form information, and Storage and Packing requirements.
- Assay is a test to measure the amount or strength of the active ingredient in a drug to ensure it is effective and meet quality standards.
Analytical Methods: The standards are set through Botanical identification and physical-chemical tests, Assays for key elements or functional groups, or marker compounds.
- It also includes advanced analytical techniques such as High Performance Thin-Layer Chromatography (HPTLC), High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC), Gas Chromatography (GC), Ultra-Violet (UV)- Visible Spectrophotometry, and Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS).
Globally Recognized Pharmacopeias: It includes IP, United States Pharmacopoeia (USP), British Pharmacopoeia (BP), European Pharmacopoeia (EP), Japanese Pharmacopoeia (JP), International Pharmacopoeia by World Health Organization (WHO).
About Indian Pharmacopoeia(IP):
Publisher: It is published by the Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission (IPC), under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW). The IP was first published in 1955, with IP 2022 being the latest edition.
Key Features:
- It contains monographs for chemical, biological, and herbal drugs
- Specifies manufacturing and testing standards
- Provides analytical methods and reference standards
- Gives guidelines for storage, packing, and labeling
- Help ensure uniform drug quality and patient safety
About Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission(IPC):
IPC is an autonomous institution under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), established in 2005 and fully operational from January 1, 2009. It is an autonomous body responsible for preparing and publishing the IP.
Chairperson – Punya Salila Srivastava
Headquarters – Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh (UP)
About Liberia
President – Joseph Nyuma Boakai
Capital – Monrovia
Currency – Liberian Dollar(LRD)
