The United States Pharmacopeial Convention (USP) is to join hands with Indian scientific community to develop safety standards for the entire range of dietary supplements and nutraceuticals that are currently not under the strict regulatory classification of either drugs or foods. Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI), Mysore is to be the major agency to associate with USP in this regard.

Informing this to pharmabiz.com, Roger L. Williams, CEO, USP, said that the association with CFTRI would be mutually rewarding for both the agencies. "Nutraceuticals, functional foods, dietary supplements etc are all emerging areas that need more attention. USP India will have a separate advisory panel on nutraceuticals," he said.

The responsibility of framing and regulating standards for nutraceuticals is to rest with the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSAI) as outlined in the Food Bill, and cleared by the Parliament last week.

The FSAI is to constitute a Scientific Committee which would constitute of Chairpersons of the Scientific Panels and six independent scientific experts not belonging or affiliated to any of the Scientific Panels. One of these scientific panels would be in charge of categories like functional foods, nutraceuticals, dietetic products and other similar products.

The Indian Advisory Group (IAG) of USP has met in Delhi and Hyderabad to identify the various areas that needs to be focused upon. The IAG is meant to assist the organization in addressing national and regional issues related to the establishment of USP-India.

The IAG is also to set up separate panels for biologicals and vaccines. "The interaction with industry is very crucial in developing the reference standards for all products, be it drugs, food or nutraceuticals. The organized structure of Indian industry is helping us very much in initiating such USP-Industry scientific dialogues," he explained.

Williams said that his Indian team has done extremely well within a short period of less than a year. USP- India currently has sixteen people on its rolls.