| 3R principles | replacement reduction and refinement (animal testing) |
| AAV | adeno-associated virus |
| AESAN | Agencia Española de Seguridad Alimentaria y Nutrición |
| Anvisa | Agência Nacional de Vigilância Sanitária (Brazilian Health Regulatory Agency) |
| ATMP | advanced therapy medicinal product |
| BE | blood establishment |
| BoMRA | Botswana Medicines Regulatory Authority |
| BRP | biological reference preparation |
| BSP | Biological Standardisation Programme |
| BTC | blood, tissues and cells |
| BWP | Biologics Working Party |
| CA | competent authority |
| CAP | centrally authorised product |
| CAS number | Chemical Abstracts Service Registry number |
| CAT | Committee for Advanced Therapies |
| CD-P-COS | European Committee for Cosmetics and Consumer Health |
| CD-P-MCA | European Committee for Food Contact Materials and Articles |
| CD-P-PH | European Committee on Pharmaceuticals and Pharmaceutical Care |
| CD-P-PH/CMED | Committee of Experts on Minimising the Public Health Risks Posed by Falsification of Medical Products and Similar Crimes |
| CD-P-PH/PC | Committee of Experts on Quality and Safety Standards in Pharmaceutical Practices and Pharmaceutical Care |
| CD-P-PH/PHO | Committee of Experts on the Classification of Medicines as Regards their Supply |
| CD-P-TO | European Committee on Organ Transplantation |
| CD-P-TS | European Committee on Blood Transfusion |
| CEP | Certificate of Suitability to the European Pharmacopoeia monographs |
| CETS | Council of Europe Treaty Series |
| CIP | Coalition of Interested Parties |
| CoP | Committee of the Parties |
| CPPS | Centre for Pharmaceutical Products Safety |
| CRS | chemical reference substance |
| CVUA | Chemisches und Veterinäruntersuchungsamt Karlsruhe (Chemical and Veterinary Investigation Office, Karlsruhe) |
| DCD | donation after circulatory death |
| DCP | decentralised procedure |
| EA | European Co-operation for Accreditation |
| EAHP | European Association of Hospital Pharmacists |
| ECBS | Expert Committee on Biological Standardization |
| ECDC | European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control |
| ECSPP | Expert Committee on Specifications for Pharmaceutical Preparations (WHO) |
| EDD | European Donation Day |
| EDQM | European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines & HealthCare |
| EEA | European Economic Area |
| EFSA | European Food Safety Authority |
| EFTA | European Free Trade Association |
| ELISA | enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay |
| EMA | European Medicines Agency |
| EPC | European Pharmacopoeia Commission |
| EQAAS | External Quality Assurance Assessment Scheme |
| ESCP | European Society of Clinical Pharmacy |
| ESOP | European Society of Oncology Pharmacy |
| EU | European Union |
| FIP | International Pharmaceutical Federation |
| GEON | General European OMCL Network |
| GMP | good manufacturing practice |
| GNP | Global Network of NQCLs for Pharmaceuticals (WHO) |
| GSG | Global Steering Group |
| GSMS | Global Surveillance and Monitoring System for substandard and falsified medical products (WHO database) |
| GTMP | gene therapy medicinal product |
| GTWG | Gene Therapy Products Working Group |
| HMA | Heads of Medicines Agencies |
| HMA-WGEO | EU Heads of Medicines Agencies’ Working Group of Enforcement Officers |
| HOPE | European Hospital and Healthcare Federation |
| ICH | International Council for Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Pharmaceuticals for Human Use |
| ICRS | International Chemical Reference Substance |
| IgG | immunoglobulin |
| IPC | Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission |
| IPRP | International Pharmaceutical Regulators Program |
| IR | infrared |
| ISA | International Standards for Antibiotics |
| ISBT | International Society of Blood Transfusion |
| ISO | International Organization for Standardization |
| ISO/TC | ISO technical committee |
| IVMP | immunological veterinary medicinal product |
| IWP | Immunologicals Working Party |
| JP | Japanese Pharmacopoeia |
| LAL | limulus amoebocyte lysate |
| LC-MS/MS | liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry |
| LMM | low-molecular mass |
| MA | marketing authorisation |
| MAT | monocyte-activation test |
| MEP | member of the European Parliament |
| MJA | Mutual Joint Audit |
| MJV | Mutual Joint Visit |
| MRP | Mutual Recognition Procedure |
| MSS | market surveillance study |
| MSSFP | market surveillance fingerprint study |
| MSSIP | market surveillance study on suspected illegal products |
| MTS | Medium-Term Strategy |
| NAT | nucleic amplification technique |
| NCA | national competent authority |
| NETTA | Network of National Focal Points on Travel for Transplantation |
| NFP | national focal point |
| NIFDC | national institute for food and drug control |
| NNB | NCL Network for Biologicals |
| NPA | national pharmacopoeia authority |
| NCQL | national quality control laboratory |
| OBPR | Official Batch Protocol Review |
| OCABR | Official Control Authority Batch Release |
| OCCL | official cosmetics control laboratory |
| OMCL | official medicines control laboratory |
| ONT | Organización Nacional de Trasplantes (Spanish National Transplant Organisation) |
| PaedF | Euroepan Paediatric Formulary Working Party |
| PaedForm | European Paediatric Formulary |
| PDCO | Paediatric Committee (EMA) |
| PDG | Pharmacopoeial Discussion Group |
| PDMP | plasma-derived medicinal product |
| PGEU | Pharmaceutical Group of the European Union |
| Ph. Eur. | European Pharmacopoeia |
| PM RA | Post-marketing risk assessment |
| PTS | Proficiency Testing Scheme |
| QM | quality management |
| QMS | quality management system |
| QWP | Quality Working Party |
| RITTA | Registry of International Travel for Transplantation Activity |
| RPT | rabbit pyrogen test |
| RS | reference standard |
| RSV | respiratory syncytial virus |
| RTEMIS | Real-Time Remote Inspection System |
| SARE | severe adverse reactions and events |
| SoHO | substance of human origin |
| SOP | standard operating procedure |
| SUP | suspicious unknown product |
| TBE | tick-borne encephalitis |
| TFDA | Taiwan Food and Drug Administration |
| TSE | transmissible spongiform encephalopathy |
| TV | training visit |
| USP | United States Pharmacopeia |
| VBRN | Veterinary Batch Release Network |
| WG | working group |
| WHA | World Health Assembly |
| WHO | World Health Organization |
| WOAH | World Organisation for Animal Health |
| WP | working party |