Industry Innovation

Strong support for R&D is central to the industry’s global competitiveness, productivity, and progress. Although the engines of innovation are largely in private companies, the public sector provides a significant majority of all support for basic research. This investment fosters new knowledge, industrial innovation, and the training of future scientists and engineers. Government also plays a key role in fostering a healthy climate for innovation through tax policy, international standards, intellectual property, and other incentives. The Excipients Business Forum is committed to supporting efforts to

• Promote sustained government investments in R&D, science infrastructure, and industrial innovation to enhance the excipients sector global competitiveness.
• Accelerate the development and commercialization of new technologies that promote health, environmental sustainability, and sector growth.
• Foster tax and trade policies that improve the competitiveness of our members.
• Strengthen the ability of worldwide legal systems to co-operatively encourage innovation through intellectual property protection.

Safety, Health & Environment

Good safety, health and environmental management is an integralpart of the efficient management of any organization involved in the supply of chemical substances. The Excipients Business Forum is working to support efforts aimed at:

• Encouraging ecisions that promote sustainable resource usage and waste prevention.
• Fostering the development and adoption of green products and processes by industry, academia, and government.
• Assuring appropriate, balanced use of voluntary and regulatory measures in achieving environmental, health, safety, and security goals and promote the responsible use of science in environmental management.
• Encouraging appropriate global harmonization of environmental, health, and safety initiatives to promote science and technology around the globe.
• Supporting risk assessments based on sound science and protective of human health and environment.
• Supporting the commercial enterprise to provide the information necessary to conduct risk assessments while protecting confidential business information.

Supply Chain Optimization

Regulatory Developments & Standards

The excipient industry continues to attract ever stringent regulations from multiple directions, including initiatives aimed at harmonizing international standards and monographs. While regulation is necessary to ensure a safety, uncoordinated policies can be counter-productive and damage competitiveness.

The Excipients Business Forum works to support policies that allow for technological advances while preserving the integrity of excipients. We advocate for science-based policies concerning product safety, labelling requirements, standards of identity, environmental issues, worker safety, and technology. We maintain strong relationships with agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration and the EU, ensuring that the voice of the industry is heard and its standpoints are known.

Counterfeiting & Product Adulteration

Counterfeiting remains a major challenge, affecting not just excipients, but finished products. A less-documented phenomenon is when a manufacturer of a licenced medicine, cosmetic or food product uses a non-regulated and undeclared ingredient, passing it as the real deal.

Such practices represent a significant threat to consumer safety due to the lack of safeguards. They also undermine trust at a time when business is under greater public suspicion. The Excipients Business Forum is working with regulators and customers to create workable solutions about reducing counterfeiting and product adulteration.

Communications & Public Engagement

The trend towards greater public awareness of additives and ingredients in products is generating greater apprehension from the public. Consumers are becoming increasingly concerned about which substances are used in the manufacture of drugs, cosmetics and food products. The Excipients Business Forum is committed to engaging with the public to raise awareness about excipients safety and highlight their role in ensuring product integrity and safety.