The Expert Committee on Specifications for Pharmaceutical Preparations works towards clear, independent and practical standards and guidelines for the quality assurance of medicines. Standards are developed by the Committee through worldwide consultation and an international consensus-building process. The following new guidelines were adopted and recommended for use: procedure for adoption of International Chemical Reference Substances; WHO good practices for pharmaceutical microbiology laboratories; good manufacturing practices: main principles for pharmaceutical products; good manufacturing practices for blood establishments (jointly with the Expert Committee on Biological Standardization); guidelines on good manufacturing practices for heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems for non-sterile pharmaceutical dosage forms; good manufacturing practices for sterile pharmaceutical products; guidelines on transfer of technology in pharmaceutical manufacturing; good pharmacy practice: standards for quality of pharmacy services (joint FIP/WHO); model guidance for the storage and transport of time- and temperature-sensitive pharmaceutical products (jointly with the Expert Committee on Biological Standardization); procedure for prequalification of pharmaceutical products; guide on submission of documentation for prequalification of innovator finished pharmaceutical products approved by stringent regulatory authorities; prequalification of quality control laboratories: procedure for assessing the acceptability, in principle, of quality control laboratories for use by United Nations agencies; guidelines for preparing a laboratory information file; guidelines for drafting a site master file; guidelines on submission of documentation for a multisource (generic) finished product: general format: preparation of product dossiers in common technical document format.