European Pharmacopoeia

The European Pharmacopoeia (Ph. Eur.) of the Council of Europe is a pharmacopoeia, listing a wide range of active substances and excipients used to prepare pharmaceutical products in Europe. It includes more than 2000 specific and general monographs, including various chemical substances, antibiotics, biological substances; Vaccines for human or veterinary use; Immunosera; Radiopharmaceutical preparations; Herbal drugs; Homoeopathic preparations and homoeopathic stocks. It also contains Dosage forms, General monographs, Materials and Containers, Sutures; 268 General methods with figures or chromatograms and 2210 reagents are described. The monographs give quality standards for all the main medicines used in Europe. All medicines sold in the 36 Member States of the European Pharmacopoeia must comply with these quality standards so that consumers have a guarantee for products obtained from pharmacies and other legal suppliers.

The European Pharmacopoeia is developed by the European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines (EDQM) and is a part of the Council of Europe, Strasbourg, France. It has been created by the Convention on the elaboration of a European Pharmacopoeia from 1964. Although the Pharmacopoeia is often listed as one of Council of Europe partial agreements, it is not, strictly speaking, a partial agreement. It has a different legal basis from the others, being established as the result of a treaty. The others were established by a "statutory resolution" adopted by the Committee of Ministers. It is published by EDQM in English and French, official national translations are available in German and Spanish (Spanish version only online).