Role of the list of standard terms in the European Pharmacopoeia for the establishment of the different existing pharmaceutical forms

The type and content of pharmacopoeias have changed many times over the years, until in 1964 the first European Pharmacopoeia was introduced under the jurisdiction of the Council of Europe as part of the implementation of the Convention on the Development of a European Pharmacopoeia.An important section of the European Pharmacopoeia is the list of standard terms. It is drawn up by the Commission of the European Pharmacopoeia, which is part of the European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines and Healthcare (EDQM), at the request of the European Commission, to be used in applications and marketing authorizations and packaging information, in the package leaflet, in the summary of product characteristics and in electronic communications.The main purpose of the study is to make a detailed analysis of the List of Standard Terms available in Bulgarian, as well as the database of standard terms maintained by the European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines in order to make a comparison between them and to identify the most the common dosage forms in them as well as the most common routes of administration.The results of the study show that the largest number are the standard terms referring to medicinal products intended for oral administration and injection. And the most common terms for dosage forms are those for solutions and powders. We also found that the most complete and up-to-date source of information on standard terms for medical devices is the database of standard terms maintained by the European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines, as it is constantly updated. Based on these facts, we can say that the European database is the gold standard for compiling lists of standard terms in each Member State of the Commission of the European Pharmacopoeia. The Bulgarian list of standard terms, on the other hand, is not updated often enough, it is recommended that this be done at shorter intervals, as new terms are constantly appearing. This is best done with each release of an updated version of the pharmacopoeia