Recently, the Pharmacy Council of India (PCI) has proposed a 'Pharm D Programme' in India to match the entry-level Pharm D curriculum in the United States. The students in that case will not have to give a FPGEE (Foreign Pharmacist Licensure Examination) to start their own drug store in United State (USA). As per the PCI suggestion many pharmacy institutions in India have started offering a Master of Science (MS) course in Clinical Pharmacy. It is a positive step in the right direction to provide knowledgeable pharmacist who can work in clinical research organisation.
There are about six hundred pharmacy colleges in India that is about 30,000 pharmacy graduates pass out every year in India. Until now, the pharmacy graduates are mainly trained to work in the Pharmaceutical Industry as product and formulation scientists. Now that clinical research organisation is increasing in India, all universities should add the subjects like clinical pharmacy, pharmacotherapeutic, biotechnology and pharmacogenomics in the curriculum. Obviously, these are specialised subjects and need the faculty who can teach these subjects with master. It is difficult to get the experts in these fields, who are pharmacy graduates or postgraduate. At present, persons with minimum M. Pharm degree can be offered teaching post in pharmacy colleges. This condition will have to be waived if specialized subjects are to be included in pharmacy courses. Experts from other discipline should be absorbed as teachers in pharmacy colleges to upgrade the knowledge in a specific subject.
At present, it appears that the hospital pharmacists are not accountable for the services provided to the physicians and the patients. This situation may soon change and the community pharmacist will be accountable in providing services both to the physicians and the patients. The necessary training has to be given preferably at under graduate level.
There are over 225 programmes in pharmacy conducted by different universities in India. The main courses in pharmacy education are the 2 year Diploma in Pharmacy (D. Pharm), 4 year Bachelor of Pharmacy (B. Pharm), 2 year Mater of Pharmacy (M. Pharm) and Ph. D programme. Pharmacy is related to health sciences and profession responsible for the preparation, dispensing and appropriate use of medication. A pharmacist job is to prepare, mix compound or dispense drug and medicines, ointments, powder, pills, tablets and injections on the prescription of a medical practitioner, dentist. They are concerned with production of pharmaceutical products, development of the methods or processes of production and quality control. Those in research concern themselves with synthesis of new drugs, new processes, clinical testing of the effects of such drugs on animals and humans, and obtaining the required licence from the drug control authorities. A pharmacist is required to explain the mode and precautions regarding the use of medicines dispensed in a hospital pharmacy, prepare special formulations normally not available in the market, assist the physician in rendering necessary information about various drugs, their contraindications, incompatibility etc.
PCI and AICTE authorities
At present, the pharmacy education in India is controlled by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and the Pharmacy Council of India (PCI). The course content of pharmacy education is as per the guidelines prepared by the PCI and AICTE authorities. To maintain the standard of education inspections are conducted periodically by these authorities.
As has been rightly stated by Dr. G. Vidya Sagar, there is severe shortage of qualified and competent faculty in pharmacy colleges in India. There has to be tie-ups between the educational institutes and hospitals so that each pharmacy student spends about two to three weeks in hospitals so that he gets first hand fill of duty of community and hospital pharmacist.
To give a boost to the research activities in the field of pharmacy, the students at post-graduate level or those who are pursuing their doctoral programme, should have access to the various instruments such as UV-spectrophotometer, FTIR, NMR, HPLC etc. Most of the time we find that the student has to struggle to get various spectra or the data necessary to confirm the structure of the compound. There should be a centralized building in each city (region) equipped with sophisticated instruments and well equipped library with internet facilities where they can have access to international journal. The pharmacy college in that city or region should give the yearly contribution of about rupees two lakhs for the maintenance of instruments. The government helps the university by giving a piece of land or provides finance for such an activity.
The careers option after completing B. Pharm or M. Pharm are 1) Teaching profession; 2) Work as hospital pharmacist or community pharmacist; 3) Work as a medical transcriptionist; 4) Work as an analytical chemist; 5) Quality control manager; 6) Medical representative; 7) Sales and marketing manager; 8) In clinical research organization, where clinical trials are conducted there they can work as i) Data manager to store the data on the trials; ii) As regulatory manager, to oversee regulatory documentation, such as clinical trial approval permission etc. It is, therefore, necessary to include the procedure involving regulatory affairs in pharmacy syllabus of all the universities.
Computer base training may be undertaken at undergraduate level, instruction material, even lecturers may be made available to the students so that they can learn at their own pace.
Various institutions to increase the institute level interaction may resort to computer conferencing. If possible the institute should go for video conferencing. Web base conferencing can be used for presentation and active participation.
In this way the interaction between different institutions in India will not be only faster but also cheaper and time saving.
(The author is director of MET Institute of Pharmacy, Mumbai)