WHO Technical Report Series, No. 981 - World Health Organization

Quality assurance – distribution and trade of pharmaceuticals
new developments and concepts, including, for example, risk management, have
influenced good distribution practices (GDP) principles and processes. It was
noted that a number of recent incidents have created awareness of the need for
further improvement of the present guidelines.
The IPEC Federation presented an update on its activities concerning
good trade and distribution practices. The IPEC Federation proposed a revision
and update of the WHO good trade and distribution practices (GTDP) guide and
offered its support in providing a proposal. This could be developed by the IPEC
Federation member groups by the end of 2012. It was noted that any draft of
the WHO GTDP guide would be circulated for review using WHO’s wide global
consultation process and would be submitted to the WHO Expert Committee
for consideration for adoption. Following adoption, the IPEC Federation would
then update its own guide in line with that of WHO.
The Expert Committee discussed the need for revising and updating the
WHO GTDP guide and endorsed the proposal.
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