Aiming to improve the quality standards in development of formulations in drug manufacturing companies with reference to technical problems, the Tamil Nadu drugs control department has kick-started a new programme under which there will be direct interaction between the industry and the teaching professionals.
The new programme will be a win-win programme for both the industry as well as the teaching professionals. While the teaching professionals will be able to get the latest developments occurring in each phase of drug making, the companies can utilise the expertise of the teaching professionals for solving several technical problems.
The initiative of the new director of state drugs control department, M Bhaskaran, has already been hailed by the manufacturers, especially the medium and small scale units, and the teachers and students of pharmacy colleges in the state. Bhaskaran said the joint director of Medical Education (Pharmacy), Dr N Narayanan will co-ordinate the program. In the recently held meeting of IPA Tamil Nadu chapter, this new initiative of the drugs control department prominently came in for discussions, and all the attendees including academia welcomed it and expressed their full support to the novel project.
Bhaskaran said he has conducted three meetings, one in Madurai and two in Chennai shared by manufacturers and principals of pharmacy colleges, based on this new agenda. However, the methods of conducting the program will be charted out in the final meeting which will be held in the directorate by this month end.
Dr Narayanan said that to implement the program the pharma companies and the educational institutions will have to jointly sign an agreement (MoU) in the presence of the director, and the companies which needed the help of teaching institutions will be present in the meeting. Regarding the role of the colleges, he said in the small and medium companies, normally highly educated and qualified persons are less compared to big ones. The colleges, where Ph D holders and M Pharm holders are plenty and their intellectual resources can be utilized for solving the problems of the industries. The process would compliment each other as the teachers, assisted by their students, can involve in the overall process of drug making in the companies.
According to Bhaskaran, all the small and medium companies in the state are encountering technical problems like that of stability, dissolution, disintegration, colour change…etc. As per the agreement, the colleges will carry out stability studies, dissolution studies and conduct researches in disintegration and the change of colour. This process would enable the teaching professional in updating their knowledge and it would in turn help the industries in solving their problems, and finally quality products would come out. The stability study in the development of formulations, which comes in the division of pharmaceutics, will provide practical knowledge to the participating teachers and assisting students. Without engaging qualified professionals as staff of the company, the manufacturing units can avail the highest quality service of the technical persons because of the new programme, an enthusiastic director told Pharmabiz.
It is expected that the interaction would also help the academicians to suggest new changes in their syllabus as they often get chances in consulting with experts in the manufacturing side. When contacted, some manufacturers said with the new initiative of the department, the drug makers in the state can diversify their process re-engineering skills in developing their formulations and inventing new drugs.