The purpose of quality assurance (QA) in pharmaceutical systems is to make certain that each medicine reaching a patient is safe, effective, and of standard quality. QA activities in a hospital or clinic should be comprehensive, spanning the entire supply process from medicine selection to patient use.

QA is a very broad field that refers to any aspect that may affect a drug’s quality during its research, development, manufacturing, and sales phases. QA professionals are responsible for instituting a range of practices that help guarantee a drug’s quality.

Since QA is such a broad field, it can be helpful to look at specific ways that it is implemented in practice. Here’s a look at a few concrete examples of how QA works in real life so you can get a better idea of why it is so important in the pharmaceutical industry.