USP Reference Standards & Pharmaceutical Analytical Impurities

For over 200 years, USP (United States Pharmacopoeia) has worked to build trust where it matters most in the world's medicines, dietary supplements and foods.

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Helping to protect patient safety and improve the health of people around the world by setting rigorous science and public quality standards.

USP is an independent, scientific non profit organisation and, although not a government entity, USP works closely with government agencies, ministries and regulatory authorities around the world to help provide standards of identity, strength, quality and purity that can help safeguard the global supply of medicines, dietary supplements and food ingredients.

USP standards are legally recognised in the U.S. and elsewhere, and are used in more than 140 countries.

1. USP Reference Standards

USP currently offers more than 3500 reference standards - highly characterised specimens of:

  • Drug substances
  • Excipients
  • Food ingredients
  • Impurities
  • Degradation products
  • Dietary supplements
  • Compendial reagents
  • Performance calibrators


USP Reference Standards are specified for use in conducting official USP–NF tests and assays. USP also provides reference standards specified in the Food Chemicals Codex as well as authentic substances (high quality chemical samples), as a service to analytical, clinical, pharmaceutical and research laboratories.

2. Pharmaceutical Analytical Impurities

USP has developed a product line of impurities that, together with official USP Reference Standards, provide a comprehensive solution for research and analytical needs. USP objective is to provide a comprehensive product package to support your work on API and drug products. This new product line is continuously expanding, balancing both the number of impurities and breadth of parent APIs.