IPEC Qualification of Excipients for Use in Pharmaceuticals – Guide & Checklist | Version 3, 2026

Pharmaceutical excipients play a critical role in the quality, performance, stability, safety, and manufacturability of medicinal products. Proper qualification of excipients and their suppliers is therefore an important element of pharmaceutical quality management.

The IPEC Federation’s “Qualification of Excipients for Use in Pharmaceuticals: Guide & Checklist – Version 3, 2026” provides an updated framework for excipient suppliers and pharmaceutical manufacturers to understand key expectations associated with the qualification and use of pharmaceutical excipients.

This comprehensive guide covers the excipient qualification process, including:

• Purpose, scope and principles of excipient qualification
• General guidance on excipient manufacture, regulation and controls
• Excipient functionality and intended use
• Regulatory and safety assessment
• Novel excipients and precedence of use
• Pharmacopeial requirements
• Excipient DMFs, CEPs and regulatory dossiers
• Manufacturing, packaging and process validation
• Test methods, specifications and stability
• Excipient development and specification processes
• Performance indicators and consistency control
• Product information and confidential information
• Excipient selection criteria
• Compatibility and performance considerations
• Supply and regulatory considerations
• Excipient manufacturer qualification
• Annex A – Qualification Checklist for practical evaluation of excipients and excipient suppliers.

The guide emphasizes the relationship between excipient suppliers and pharmaceutical excipient users, with the objective of establishing appropriate quality, technical, regulatory and communication controls. It also provides practical considerations for assessing excipients according to their intended application, route of administration, quality attributes and performance requirements.

For pharmaceutical manufacturers, QA, QC, Regulatory Affairs, R&D, Procurement, Technical Services and Supplier Quality teams, this guide can serve as a useful reference when developing or reviewing an excipient qualification programme.

Important Note

The IPEC document states that it is voluntary guidance and not a regulatory requirement, and that applicable national/regional regulatory requirements should be reviewed separately.

Reference: International Pharmaceutical Excipients Council (IPEC) Federation – Version 3, 2026.

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