U.S. Pharmacopeia, the world's leading provider of pharmaceutical
reference standards, and Chemdex, a Ventro™ life
sciences company and leading provider of business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce
solutions, today announced a new service providing full on-line USP Reference Standards ordering
capability through Chemdex. USP's Reference Standards now joins the Chemdex marketplace consisting of nearly two million scientific and laboratory products from more than 2,200
suppliers.
USP's Reference Standards are highly defined chemical specimens used to carry out tests for identity, strength, quality, and purity, as specified in the
United States Pharmacopeia and the
National Formulary (USP-NF), the official
standards publications for
pharmaceuticals and other health care products. Reference Standards are an integral part of the official tests and
specifications in the USP-NF that standardize the development of high-quality pharmaceuticals and
dietary supplements worldwide. USP currently provides more than 1,250 pharmaceutical
Reference Standards-the world's largest collection-to customers around the globe. An additional 370 Reference Standards are under development.
"While USP Reference Standards will continue to be available through the USP web site, Chemdex provides USP a well-integrated marketplace for the
Life Sciences industry," said Alan
Nichols, USP's Director of Reference Standards marketing. "With the promise of streamlining and centralizing the purchasing process, USP Reference Standards customers will benefit from
procurement efficiencies and time and cost savings due to consolidated ordering."
Chemdex currently has established relationships with more than 150 pharmaceutical,
biotechnology and research institutions, known as enterprise customers, all of which benefit from
Chemdex's integrated e-procurement
solution for the purchasing of scientific and lab products. As the first customer-driven marketplace for life sciences, Chemdex will now allow 37,000
registered scientists, researchers and purchasing managers in the U.S. access to USP Reference Standards, supporting the life sciences industry's efforts to reduce costs and achieve
greater levels of research productivity.
"Since most of the Chemdex Enterprise Customers are current USP customers," continued Nichols, "this new option helps streamline the ordering process. It's easier to go to one web site
for everything you need at once."
"Chemdex is committed to connecting suppliers from all areas of the life sciences industry with our enterprise buyers as seamlessly as possible," said Neil de Crescenzo, president and
general manager of Chemdex. "As new R&D technologies continue to revolutionize life sciences industry's traditional approach in bringing new pharmaceuticals to market, it's essential that
we provide additional tools, products and information that provide researchers with the ability to achieve greater productivity and cost-effectiveness as part of their ongoing research efforts.
The ability to provide access to USP's Reference Standards greatly complements our current supplier offerings and allows us to continue to quickly scale the Chemdex marketplace to best
meet researchers growing need for contextual purchasing capabilities in conjunction with their regulatory and R&D needs."
USP Reference Standards are currently available for purchase at Chemdex's web site, www.chemdex.com and at USP's web site, www.usp.org.