The Bulk Pharmaceutical Task Force (BPTF), an affiliate of the Society of Chemical Manufacturers and Affiliates (SOCMA), announced the addition of six new pharmaceutical companies to the group, bringing the total number of new members this year to 15. BPTF is an industry trade group organization for U.S. manufacturers of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), intermediates and excipients.

The new members include:
* AMPAC Fine Chemicals, Rancho Cordova, CA
* Cambridge Major Laboratories, Germantown, WI
* DSM, Heerlen, Netherlands
* Evonik, Essen, Germany
* Hovione LLC, Loures, Portugal
* Polypeptide Laboratories, Torrance, CA

“We welcome these six companies to BPTF and look forward to working with them to address various issues facing our industry including the Food and Drug Administration’s lack of resources and the need for increased security for the U.S. drug supply chain,” said BPTF chair Patty Benson, quality assurance director at SAFC.

Benson said companies are joining the group to play a role in setting industry standards, provide guidance and understanding to members of Congress and engage in networking opportunities, among other things.

Created in 2002, as an affiliate organization of SOCMA, BPTF’s primary focus is drug ingredient quality issues such as current good manufacturing practices (cGMP) and drug supply chain safety.

Since 2006, BPTF has been active in advocating for increased resources for the FDA in order to conduct more cGMP inspections of foreign drug ingredient manufacturers. Last month, the group’s members negotiated with FDA a nearly $300 million deal that would result in greater scrutiny of drug manufacturing in high-risk regions of the globe. The “generic drug user fee program” (GDUFA), the result of month’s of deliberation between the agency and industry groups, is designed to level the playing field between foreign and domestic manufacturing facilities inspected by the FDA.

For information on BPTF, or topics relating to current good manufacturing practices of APIs, visit www.socma.com/bptf.