In view of the increasing number of pharmacy graduates including Pharm D holders, the Kerala State Pharmacy Council (KSPC) in a resolution has demanded to the Pharmacy Council of India (PCI) to amend Section 42 of the Pharmacy Act in order to make it mandatory that all the technical jobs connected with drugs production should be reserved for qualified pharmacists.
The resolution says that presently the Section 42 mandates the presence of qualified pharmacists in pharmacies to dispense the medicines. But other careers in the areas of manufacture, clinical trials, drug research, clinical practice and distribution should be brought under the Section 42. This demand has been made and passed by the executive committee of the KSPC considering the job opportunities of the qualified and registered pharmacists in the country, said B Rajan, president of the Council.
“Certain career avenues should be specified and the job vacancies generating there be reserved for the qualified and registered pharmacists only. Next year more than 3000 Pharm D graduates will come out from 130 Pharmacy Colleges in India. They are technical experts of drugs with knowledge on efficacy and reactions of medicines. The services of pharmacists in pharmacotherapy, clinical pharmacokinetics, pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic correlation in drug therapy, pharmacovigilance and in pharmacoeconomics are getting prominence in enhancing efficacy and decreasing toxicity during therapy. So, wherever, the role of pharmacists is required, such areas should be specified in the Section 42”, he said.
According to Rajan, previously there was shortage of qualified pharmacists, so science graduates were appointed in technical posts in manufacturing companies and in CROs. Now pharmacists are in plenty and they deserve jobs in the pharma sector. At the time of implementing the Pharmacy Act, dispensing alone was included in the Act because the number of qualified pharmacists during that period was very few and most of them were diploma holders just to dispense the medicines. Now spectacular progress happened in the field of pharmacy education, and qualified persons on par with those in foreign countries have come up. So changes and amendments are required in the Pharmacy Act, he pointed out.
“These job reservations will protect the pharmacy graduates and the educational sector. It will boost the Pharm D programme also. Further, it will expunge the impression that pharmacy education is only for compounding and dispensing of drugs. It is because, at present dispensing only is indicated in the Section 42 of the Act”, Rajan told Pharmabiz.
He said in the preamble of the Act, it is said that from production to dispensing all activities connected with drug should be carried out by a registered pharmacist. So, all professions in the pharma manufacturing, clinical research, clinical trial, clinical practice, distribution and drug research should be reserved for them. Further, in the clinical group of doctors there should be one pharmacist also. In foreign countries this principle is followed in all hospitals.
But, he said, if it is found necessary, in the case of analysis, services of microbiologists can be utilized.
The Pharmacy Act was framed by the British rulers even though it was implemented in India after independence. So the Act is similar to the one in the international level. It is similar to the foreign Act. In other countries, all the jobs connected with pharmacy and drugs are handled by qualified pharmacists. Pharm D is a qualification in the international level. So, here in India also there should be job reservation for pharmacy graduates, especially Pharm D holders, KSPC demanded.