The International Pharmaceutical Excipients Council of India (IPEC India) hosted its first - ever annual conference in Mumbai recently to advocate on the theme - ‘The Need for Total Excipient Control’.
The conference was chaired by Ajit Singh, chairman, IPEC India and ACG Worldwide. On the sidelines of the conference, Ajit Singh added, “Today, excipients are also an important part of the formulation for optimal drug delivery system. IPEC India is the foremost body that is taking concrete steps to ensure total patient safety in this country through such conferences wherein key stakeholders get a common platform to meet and deliberate on areas that concern them the most”.
The Guest of Honour Sudhanshu Pandey, joint secretary, Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce inaugurated the event. He was joined by Dave Schoneker, Global Expansion Controller, IPEC Federation and Subhodh Priolkar, Vice Chairman, IPEC India, Peter Salazar and SM Mudda, managing committee member, IPEC India,
Dave Schoneker during his presentation stated that IPEC is all about science and using this science to drive what is ultimately good to businesses across the world. IPEC Federation is the regional voice with a global influence. IPEC is the largest organization in the world that focuses on excipients and excipient safety.
A host of other reputed speakers spoke on various subjects that impact the excipients industry. Speakers were Dr Sameer Navalgund, vice president, USP-India, Seema Kamath, manager, Global Regulatory Management Life Sciences, Merck, Vishakha Metkar, manager, Regulatory Affairs, Colorcon South Asia and T S Shadagopan, Product Manager, SGS India, and Kedar Chikhalikar, associate head, Technical Services, Lubrizol Advanced Materials.
Seema Kamath stressed that poor quality excipients can hamper a drug batch or the final drug product. Therefore, it is critical only to use components in drug formulation from high quality reliable suppliers who have good change notification programs in place.
TS Shadagopan gave an overview of EXCiPACT and other certifications. He said that IPEC is doing a very good job of education and appealed that IPEC India should approach all excipient manufacturers in India and ask them to be members of the council. Shadagopan announced that “ACG Associated Capsules Pvt. Ltd received the EXCiPACT Certification on this very day”.
This event was well attended by representatives from the pharma industry such as Merck, Unichem, Sun Pharma, Dr. Reddy’s, Micro Labs and Cipla. The annual conference was also well attended by key players in the excipients industry including BASF, Colorcon Asia, Dow Corning as well as ACG Worldwide.
The IPEC Federation is a global organization that promotes quality in pharmaceutical excipients which eventually leads to improvement of patient treatment as well as safety. IPEC is a Federation of four independent regional industry associations headquartered in the United States (IPEC Americas), Europe (IPEC Europe), Japan (JPEC) and China (IPEC China). The latest to join the Federation is IPEC India, which was confirmed as an associate member in February 2016.