Quality assurance of medicines is a feature of all procedures and processes employed throughout the production chain: whether development, manufacture, monitoring, distribution or final use. Unfortunately, it is not possible to evaluate the quality of products merely through the provision of a compliance certificate for good manufacturing practices (GMP) or from the results of a quality control test. The specific criteria of quality control each confirm the validity of different stages of manufacture and process control points. Quality thus has to be built in at each critical stage of the production process, the end result of which is the production of a medicinal product fit for its purpose and use