The International Conference on Harmonization (ICH) steering committee and working groups met in Seville, Spain, earlier this month. The groups meet twice annually to discuss, revise, and approve various harmonization guidelines. At the latest meeting, the steering committee approved a revised ICH S2(R1) guideline for genotoxicity testing and data interpretation for medicines intended for human use. The Quality Implementation Working Group (IWG) completed three points-to-consider documents on process validation/process verification, the role of modeling in QbD, and design space. All documents will soon appear on the ICH website. The next meeting will be held in Fukuoka, Japan, in June 2012.

The US Pharmacopeia has developed a memorandum of understanding with the Chilean Pharmacopeia Foundation to help provide the quality and safety of medicines in Chile and the United States. USP has recently established similar partnerships with Russia and the Ukraine.