Constitution and Bylaws

Constitution

Article I—Name and Objects

Section 1

The corporate name of this corporation shall be "The United States Pharmacopoeial Convention," hereinafter referred to in this Constitution as the Pharmacopeial Convention.

The alternative spelling, "Pharmacopeial," also shall be considered as official.

Section 2

Its objects shall be those declared in its Certificate of Incorporation, and include (a) the revision and publication of the information contained in the Pharmacopeia of the United States of America and the National Formulary, also referred to as the United States Pharmacopeia and as the USP and as the NF, respectively, and of the Supplements thereto; (b) the establishment and dissemination of authoritative information for the use of medicines and articles used in health care or for the improvement or maintenance of health by health care professionals, patients, and consumers; and (c) the publication regularly or at suitable times of other information of related scientific purpose. The term authorized shall be applied to such information when it has been prepared in accordance with the rules and procedures adopted by the Council of Experts, or otherwise by direction of the Board of Trustees.

Section 3

The Pharmacopeia of the United States of America and the National Formulary, together with their Supplements, are compilations prepared under the authority of the Pharmacopeial Convention; they are prepared and regularly revised entirely or in part by a committee or committees of experts in medicine, pharmacy and other health care professional and scientific disciplines and other appropriately qualified individuals, chaired by elected members of the Council of Experts; their primary purpose is to provide authoritative standards and specifications for materials and substances and their preparations that are used in health care or for the improvement or maintenance of health; they establish titles, definitions, descriptions, and standards for identity, quality, strength, purity, packaging, and labeling, and also, where practicable, bioavailability, stability, procedures for proper handling, storage, and shipment, methods for their examination, and formulas for their manufacture or preparation.