The paper is addressed to the institute of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Budapest, on the 50th anniversary of its foundation, paying tribute to Prof. Antal Végh, the first director of the Institute and his first deputy dr. László Auber and all the members of the Staff having merit in developing the research activity at the Department. After surveying the early papers published from the fifties through the seventies, concerning the profile of drug purity control, the factors increasing HPLC selectivity are shortly reviewed. In the concluding part of the paper, some recent results, as HPLC purity control methods suitable for compendial purposes (methylxanthines, opium alkaloids, tropane-alkaloids, enantiomer purity control of different drug compounds on glycoprotein and chirelcel columns) are summarized.