Pharmabiz
 

Chennai IPC meet to strengthen pharmacy education

Peethaambaran, ChennaiThursday, December 6, 2012, 08:00 Hrs  [IST]

The  64th Indian Pharmaceutical Congress (IPC), with the theme “Vision 20-20: Pharmacy Education – Innovation, Strategies and Globalization” will be held on Dec 7,  Dec 8 and  Dec 9 at the  sprawling SRM University Campus in the fourth largest metropolitan city of Chennai with two days pre-conference on Dec 5 and Dec 6.

The Indian Pharmaceutical Conference (IPC), an initiative of  Indian Pharmaceutical Congress Association (IPCA) consisting Indian Pharmaceutical Association (IPA), Indian Pharmacy Graduates Association (IPGA), Indian Hospital Pharmacists Association (IHPA), Association of Pharmaceutical Teachers of India (APTI) and All India Drug Control Officers Confederation (AIDCOCO) in now in its 64th year and is the largest conference of pharmacy professionals in the country.

 The main aim of the conference is to promote, encourage and bring together researchers and pharmacy professionals from industry, academia and regulatory side to pave way for innovative drug developments and strengthen the pharmacy education. The local organizing committee of the 64th IPC says that they are planning to create a new benchmark with the IPC 2012 edition by tabling issues and opportunities that the industry needs to address on a priority to lead India’s next knowledge and business revolution.

According to  the organizers, former President of India Dr APJ Abdul Kalam is the chief guest of this year’s IPC. He will inaugurate the  congress at 6 pm on  November 6. It is planned to hold the inaugural ceremony after the valedictory session of the pre-conference seminar, said Dr K Chinnaswami, president of the IPC committee.

Pharmacy education
He said the participants at the congress include pharmacy professionals from the various facets of pharmacy profession such as pharmaceutical industry, education, regulatory and community & hospital pharmacy. It is also an excellent platform for budding pharmacy students to get exposure to the profession and have the unique opportunity of interacting with leaders from industry, academia and eminent scientists from India and abroad thus becoming a canvas of learning and opportunity.

“Pharmacy education in India has entered the second decade of the 21st century. Pharmacy educators in the country continue to face a number of pressing issues that threaten the quality of pharmacy education at a time when globalization of the pharmacy education and pharmacists workforce is taking place. While the pharmacists have unprecedented opportunities in the era of globalization and expanding roles and responsibilities, pharmacy education too needs to respond to these challenges from a global perspective”, he said.

Dr Chinnaswami, a pharmacy academician, hopes that this year’s IPC will deliberate on the issues and recommend strategies in a globalised environment.  Innovation in curriculum, best practices in teaching and learning methodologies, sharing of educational and pharmacy practice experiences from different parts of the country and across the globe are some of the areas of deliberation.

Help to industry

S V Veeramani, Chairman of the Organising Committee and the Managing Director Fourrts Lab, said “The Indian Pharmaceutical Congress is  a milestone event and year after year it is becoming a successful  meeting place for professionals from the academia and industry to discuss and expand their network in the dynamic market. Several high profile national and international pharma firms will be participating at the congress, to become a perfect platform for pharma professionals and industry , students, as well as academicians to interact and network with one another.

“In my understanding, there are three areas that we need to focus on. Firstly, there is need to frame the curriculum keeping in mind the requirements of students so as to meet the tough demands of the pharma industry and to competently meet  the needs of the industry and pharmacy practice as well.

Next there is an urgent need to train the trainer and therefore the need to set up training institutes which will be ideal from the point of view of training the teachers and the pharmacists on a continuous basis. We also need to build awareness amongst parents about the pharmacy profession so that they encourage their children to become the new generation pharmacists and serve their communities”, he added.

In the year 2003 when Dr Kalam was the president of the country, he came to Chennai to inaugurate the IPA Convention in which the president launched the

‘Pharma Vision 2020” programme, said J Jayaseelan, the organizing secretary of this year’s IPC. He further said Kalam’s vision about the pharmaceutical sector and the projects he put forward had influenced the industry people in Tamil Nadu.

Business meet
A special mark of IPC 2012 is that a special international business meet is organized by the pharmaceutical export promotion council (Pharmexcil) on the sidelines of the event. It is hoped that the meet will help the pharmaceutical exporters and manufacturers of SME pharma companies in India, especially those from the South, to expand their business opportunities into overseas markets. Pharmexcil’s expectation is that the business congress will help increase India’s pharmaceutical exports in 2012-13.  

“This is a great opportunity for the pharma manufacturers of Tamil Nadu and those attending the Indian Pharmaceutical Congress to meet and interact with exporters and importers from various parts of the country and from abroad on one platform. The main objective of the business meet is to provide opportunity for the Indian pharma exporters, particularly from SME sector, to meet about 40 prominent buyers, drug regulatory officials and government procurement agencies of different countries across the globe”, said Dr Appaji director general of the Pharmexcil.

About 40 delegates from major countries in the Latin American countries (LAC), Commonwealth Independent States (CIS), ASEAN, Africa, Europe and Oceania will be invited to the meet to interact with the exporters and manufacturers of Indian pharmaceutical sector. But more emphasize will be given on meeting with the buyers and the programmes are conveniently divided into four sessions, he added.

Pharmexcil’s  business meet will definitely help the exporters and the small scale pharma manufacturers of Tamil Nadu. All the manufacturers can meet international buyers and sellers at one place and think of how to expand their business into the global markets. The meet will also highlight

India’s strength to supply quality generic medicines at affordable prices, a member of the organizing committee has pointed out.

According to him the meet will help exchange updated information on drug regulatory procedures in India and other countries. Further, commercial and technical co-operation among countries  can be increased. Prominent buyers / importers of pharmaceutical products from different countries, FDA officials and pharma consultants from India are also expected to attend the Pharmexcil event.

The business sessions in the congress will cover discussions on Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients, formulations, biotech & biological products, Ayush products, veterinary drugs, R & D, clinical trials, contract manufacturing and pharma related services. It is planning to facilitate the participants to visit the plants of major companies in Tamil Nadu.

Registration
Even though the  registration process was slow in the beginning, the number of delegates attending the congress has increased to 7000 on November 30. More than 6000 students have registered for this year’s conference. The organizers are expecting a turn over of 8000 delegates this year including students, researchers, faculties, industry representatives, regulatory staffs besides scientific luminaries from across the world.

About 105 speakers from India and outside are expected to attend the conference which will include 19 symposiums and three panel discussions on various subjects. Poster presentation will be allowed on the second and third days of the event.

To attract people from industry to the pre-conference programme taking on December 5, special package has been made for bulk registrations.

Quiz contest for women pharma professionals
Along with this year’s IPC, the Association of Pharmaceutical Teachers of India (APTI) will hold a national level quiz competition for students of M Pharm and full time Ph D scholars in pharmacies. Teachers are not allowed to participate in the competition.

Sources said the purpose of the quiz programme is to kindle pharmacy graduates’ interest in various subjects of pharmacy and stimulate awareness of allied subjects. The winning teams will be rewarded with prize money of Rs 30,000, Rs 20,000 and Rs 15,000 for the first, second and third places respectively. Besides, the winning college will be given a special award.

Regarding the criteria of the QC, the participating candidate should be actively pursuing M Pharm or full time Ph D from a recognized institution. The candidates have to register as delegates to the IP Congress also.

Pre-conference on Dec 5 &  6
A pre-conference workshop is also organized this year as part of the IPC to help researchers and faculties in the pharmaceutical field. The intensive training workshop will be conducted on December 5 and 6 at SRM University campus itself.

According to Dr M N Inamdar, HoD of Pharmacology at Al-Ameen College of Pharmacy in Bengaluru, who is the chairman of the workshop organizing committee, this highly interactive two days workshop will train the participants how to conceptualize and frame a research question / topic and to help learn to communicate research findings through scientific journals or publications.

According to him there is a gap in learning the basic concepts of research and scientific writing that can be filled through this workshop. A successful researcher should have a strong grasp of the research process and excellent communication skills that are the core points of discussion in the training workshop, he added.

“The training is critical for young researchers, students of M. Pharm, Ph.D and  Pharm D program. It will help the educators in developing the skill to write and the industry professionals to update their knowledge in R&D, QA/QC and Regulatory Affairs. Further, this training is aimed at bringing up those members who have never  received formal training in these core skills, those who have been out of touch for a while and need to brush up and who wish to achieve academic improvement and professional excellence”, he told Pharmabiz.

While briefing about the objectives of the workshop, the chairman said on completion of the workshop the participants will get an understanding of the sequential steps in developing a study protocol from choosing a research topic to developing a hypothesis. They will be able to understand the typical format and elements of a study protocol and their importance in driving the study to completion. They will also know how to prepare study protocols on different topics in their subject of specialization.

On December 5, the first day of the workshop, the core area of training is understanding of research process. The four sessions will discuss on various topics such as ‘Fundamentals in research process, reviewing and searching of the biomedical literature, basic biostatistics and writing experimental protocols in pharmacology, pharmaceutical chemistry, biopharmaceutics, pharmacognosy and phytochemistry.

Topics in the second day for learning are ‘Structure of a scientific paper in biomedical sciences, language and style in writing thesis and research papers, how to write a paper starting with an abstract and working with journals’. The trainers will include scientists and eminent professors from various research centres and teaching institutions from India and outside.

A nominal fee is charged from the participants for the two days workshop. For students and teaching faculty- Rs 1124 and for industry professionals- Rs 3371, said Prof Inamdar.

According to reports, though it was earlier planned to hold this year’s IPC in Goa, it was shifted to Chennai for  easy conveyance of  delegates and of greater  facilities available in Chennai for the meet compared to the poor infrastructure in Panaji.

 
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