The United States Pharmacopoeia (USP), as part of its plan to establish its presence in India, has decided to set up a pharmacopoeial laboratory at Hyderabad. USP is contemplating various options including establishing a lab at ICICI Knowledge Park at Hyderabad, according to informed sources.

This will be the first USP lab being set up by the US pharmaceutical reference standards agency outside the US. The USP is expected to invest around Rs 20 crore towards the laboratory and over 25 senior pharmaceutical scientists both from the US and India are likely to be working at the laboratory.

The USP’s Indian site is to support the activities of Indian and regional constituencies, including the Indian Pharmacopoeia to promote the manufacture of good quality therapeutic products for the global market. It will work with Indian manufacturers to supply quality, safe, effective medicines and dietary supplement ingredients and products for the US market.

The USP-India site will also meet the same standards, including relevant international organization of standards (ISO) certifications. The site will involve experienced Indian scientists in the standards-setting activities of USP with a focus on US legally marketed, off-patent medicines.

USP standards are currently used in 130 countries and it had sold the reference standards internationally in the sixties.