Pharmacy practice as a profession is neither adequately recognised nor widely known in India unlike in the developed countries. The common man's misguided impression about a pharmacist in India is that he is just a counter salesman in a medical store. Not many are aware of the existence of pharmacists in pharmaceutical companies, pharmacists' role in hospitals and the functions of a community pharmacist. Considering the huge number of retail pharmacies in the country and the constant interaction with the person at the counter, the public perception of this profession should have been something quite different. To a great extent the blame for the current state of affairs in this profession goes to the representative bodies of this profession. It is surprising that standards of pharmacy education, facilities at the colleges, professional competence of pharmacists, etc. continued to remain poor despite respectable growth achieved by the pharmaceutical industry during the last 20 years. Barring a few speeches on the need for upgradation of the profession at conferences, no serious efforts have been made to achieve this objective.
The recent move by the Pharmacy Council of India to start a dialogue with the Central government to bring in a comprehensive amendment to the Pharmacy Act, 1948 in this regard, is significant. The objective of this exercise is to have an effective regulation on pharmacy education and practice in the country. Professional bodies should have taken a hard look at the status of this profession at least ten years ago. Dr B Suresh, president of PCI has, however, already started working for the goal by setting up a law committee to work on the practice regulations to be incorporated in the Act. Although the Pharmacy Act has come into existence in 1948, it has neither defined the pharmacy profession nor prescribed any code of conduct for pharmacists. Dr Suresh is right in saying that the knowledge base of the practicing pharmacist needs to be expanded and he should be motivated to take up more responsibilities. It is therefore important that a pharmacist should have understanding of subjects like pathophysiology of common diseases, pharmacology, ADR, drug to drug interactions, interpretation of lab investigation, etc. In modern pharmacy stores of the future, customers expect the presence of a pharmacist at the counter with such a level of knowledge. With a two-year diploma course, pharmacists are not adequately qualified to understand these subjects and deliver such critical services. Therefore, to raise the skills of a pharmacist, the basic educational standards of a pharmacist have to be upgraded first. The entire curriculum of pharmacy education in India needs to be revamped with an industry and hospital orientation. The minimum qualification for that has to be a degree in pharmacy and not a diploma. It is going to be a difficult decision to implement as different vested interests involved in running educational institutions and pharmaceutical trade may continue to oppose. But that is the need of the hour and senior pharmacy professionals need to ponder how to get it done.