The Indian Pharmacopoeia 2007, the much awaited fifth edition of the standard setting document for the pharma industry, is ready for release on December 18 and would be made effective from April 2008.

Union health minister Dr Ambumani Ramadoss would release the new edition, at a function at the Central Indian Pharmacopoeia Laboratory, Ghaziabad. Union Minister of State for health and the members of the scientific body of the Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission would be among those to attend the function, sources said.

The new edition coming out in three volumes will have 300 additional monographs and is going to be unique with many new features. Besides, the 175 new monographs of chemicals and dosage forms, it will have monographs on vaccines, immunosera, herbs, herbal products, blood and blood-related products, biotechnology and veterinary products.

``The new edition would supersede the 1996 edition, but any monograph of the earlier edition that does not figure in this edition continues to be official as stipulated in the second schedule of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940,'' the preface to the forthcoming edition said.

The first volume contains the preface, the structure of the IPC, acknowledgements, introduction and the general chapters. The second volumes deals with the general monographs on dosage forms of active pharmaceutical ingredients and monographs (A to L) and the final volumes contains monographs (M to Z) followed by monographs on vaccines and immunosera, herbs and herbal products, blood and blood-related products, biotechnology products and veterinary products.

The IPC had published IP Addendum 2005 to IP 1996 with amendments in existing monographs and adding 46 new monographs and it was made effective from June 30, 2006. The 1996 edition had 1250 monographs. Ever since, the IPC secretariat has been on the huge task of bringing out the new edition in a comprehensive and more user-friendly format.