ASHP Protests Deletion Of Salt Content From USP Monograph Titles, USA

Main Category: Pharmacy / Pharmacist
Article Date: 14 Jan 2008 - 2:00 PDT

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The American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) is urging the U.S. Pharmacopeia (USP) to reexamine changes to Chapter <1121> Nomenclature, which revise the existing policy so that monograph titles identify only the active moiety rather than the salt and active moiety. ASHP strongly believes that this change could potentially lead to increased errors and patient harm.

In a letter sent to USP officials last week, the Society notes that the salt concept and the active moiety nomenclature are important for a number of reasons, including harmful effects that could result from camouflaging the salt in clinical situations where the amount of the salt needs to be controlled based on a patient's medical condition. The Society is concerned that the approved policy change will result in continuing decline in health professionals' understanding of the importance of salt concepts, including key pharmaceutical concepts such as stability, solubility, and compatibility.

ASHP also disagreed with USP's decision to apply the revised policy to new drug product monographs, while potentially grandfathering older drug agents, citing a lack of consistency and the potential that practitioners would falsely assume that salt concerns exist for only a handful of products.

Click here to read the complete letter.

American Society of Health-System Pharmacists