The 54th Indian Pharmaceutical Congress plenary session on the "Careers for Pharmaceutical Biotechnology," which concluded here on the second day of the congress has suggested a change in the existing pharma education curriculum to incorporate biotechnology related portions for the benefit of "pharmaceutical biotechnologists." The need for a separate postgraduate training program or a masters degree program to equip the B Pharm graduates to work in biotechnology industry was highlighted.

Addressing the plenary, Dr B Suresh, principal, J S S College of Pharmacy, Ooty wanted the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) and the Pharmacy Council of India to take note of the changing needs for meeting the long-term requirement of trained personnel in the multidisciplinary field of biotechnology.

"The pharmacy curriculum at the under graduate and the post graduate level needs to be updated teaching biotechnology based subjects like cell biology, molecular biology, genetic engineering, immunology, tissue culture, biochemical engineering and bio-process technology, computer modeling of molecular structures and interactions, bioinformatics etc," he said.

According to him, there are few universities in the country, which offer postgraduate programmes to the pharmacist in the field of biotechnology. "There is a great need to offer more programmes and strengthen the infrastructure at the pharmacy institutions to meet the challenges of this dynamic area where changes are taking place as rapidly as they are being created."

Pharmaceutical biotechnology is based on two different scientific disciplines that previously were not in contact with each other. So educating classical pharmaceutical scientists about typical biotech issues has become a priority today, he felt.

With world biotech industrial sector poised for a major growth to $ 35 billion from current $ 7 billion by year 2004, there will be a lot of new jobs coming in sectors which are not familiar even today. Indian talent in biotechnology will be in great demand globally during the next decade, he said. "Growth in life sciences markets will fuel other supplier markets that need technical people with business acumen. There will be a number of jobs for sales and marketing where pharmacy graduates can excel, business development involves distribution channel creation," he explained. Some of the typical positions in a biotechnology institute or industry are in the fields of research and development, quality control, validation engineer, manufacturing and production, regulatory affairs, marketing and sales and administration, he added.

Earlier, there was a separate session on "Careers in Biotechnology" where Hemant Dande, vice president - marketing, Emcure Pharmaceuticals, spoke about the career opportunities in pharmacy and biotechnology in pharmaceutical industries and R&D.

A talk on "Careers and Scope in Pharmaceutical Marketing" was delivered by Lt Col. Dr V P Singh, Reader, Armed Forces Medical College, Pune. Positive Attitude - a prescription to success was the subject of talk for Dr Bhushan Patwardhan, director, School of Health Sciences, University of Pune. Advances in Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Technology was the third students symposium that was organised during the day.