Developing the State Pharmacopoeia showcases the scientific potential of the state language

On 21 October 2026, on the occasion of Uzbek Language Day, the State Pharmacopoeia Development Department of the Center for Pharmaceutical Products Safety held a cultural and educational event at the «Tashkent Pharma Park» library.

The main purpose of the event was to highlight the strengthening of the legal status of the state language, the expansion of its scientific and technical capacity, compliance with the requirements for conducting official business in the state language in the pharmaceutical sector, and ensuring a uniform terminological approach in pharmacopoeial documents.

In his presentation, Deputy Head of the Department Akmalkhoja Zaynidinov analysed the legal foundations of the state language and their importance for the development of the State Pharmacopoeia. Particular attention was paid to the constitutional provision on the state language set out in Article 4 of the Constitution of the Republic of Uzbekistan, to the requirement to enrich the Uzbek language with scientific and technical terms laid down in Article 7 of the Law «On the State Language», and to the rules set out in Article 21 on providing products with labels and instructions in the state language.

The tasks set out in Resolution of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan PR-308 of 20 October 2025 «On additional measures for the further development of the state language» were also reviewed: raising the standing of the state language as a language of science, systematically expanding its vocabulary and ensuring its integration into modern information technologies. It was emphasised that Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Uzbekistan No. 437 of 7 August 2026 establishes the responsibility and personal accountability of managers for compliance with the legislation on the state language and for conducting official business in the state language.

Special attention was given to implementing the state-language requirements in the pharmaceutical sector. In particular:

• the requirement, under Order No. 203 of the Minister of Health, to keep records within the ministry's system in the Latin-based Uzbek alphabet from 1 September 2023 was noted;
• the requirements of the Regulation approved by Order No. 14 of the Minister of Health of 12 December 2025 and registered by the Ministry of Justice on 30 December 2025 under No. 3738 were analysed. Under this Regulation, general pharmacopoeial monographs and pharmacopoeial monographs are developed in the state language. Where an equivalent word or concept exists in the state language, the use of foreign-language terms, colloquial forms, and obsolete or ambiguous words and expressions is not permitted.

The State Pharmacopoeia is an official publication covering the requirements for medicinal products and medical devices and the methods for controlling their quality. Its monographs set out the quality attributes of a given medicinal product or other relevant object and the requirements for their control. Terminological accuracy, scientific validity and a consistent interpretation of the text are therefore key quality criteria of pharmacopoeial documents.

Incorrect use or divergent interpretation of terms may lead to a misunderstanding of analytical methods, adversely affect the comparability of results and, ultimately, create risks to patient safety. The need to follow the «one concept — one term» principle and to use scientifically substantiated terms when building pharmacopoeial terminology was therefore emphasised.

Department staff members Maktuba Tashpulatova and Ziyoda Irmukhamedova also spoke at the event, reporting on the work under way to apply the state-language requirements in the department's activities, including the use of the Latin-based Uzbek alphabet in official records, the unification of pharmacopoeial terms, and ensuring a uniform terminological approach in translation and scientific editing.

The following were noted as the main results of the State Pharmacopoeia Development Department:

• The first edition of the State Pharmacopoeia has been published in Uzbek and Russian. Volume I of the second edition has been prepared in the Latin-based Uzbek alphabet.
• An explanatory dictionary covering more than 200 pharmacopoeial terms has been compiled.
• Thousands of pages of the European and US pharmacopoeias have been studied, harmonisation with international pharmacopoeial requirements has been carried out, and the relevant texts have been translated into Uzbek.
• Uzbek equivalents have been developed for specialised pharmacopoeial terms such as «Bacterial endotoxins» and «Reference standards».

At the close of the event, priority tasks were set: consistent compliance with the state-language legislation in the department's work, further improvement of the terminology of pharmacopoeial monographs and ensuring its uniform use, expansion of the explanatory dictionary of terms, and adherence to the spelling, style and terminology norms of the Uzbek literary language in the preparation, translation and editing of documents.

Improving the State Pharmacopoeia in the national language serves not only to raise the quality of regulatory documents in the pharmaceutical sector but also to develop the scientific and technical potential of the Uzbek language and to strengthen its standing internationally.

We warmly congratulate all our colleagues on Uzbek Language Day! May our state language continue to flourish in every field of science, education and professional activity!