Bangalore will be the  venue for the  63rd Indian Pharmaceutical Congress which will be organised  by the Indian Pharmaceutical Association (IPA) and the Karnataka IPC branch. According to sources, the venue would be  either the Bangalore International Exhibition Centre on the Peenya Tumkur Road or the Palace  grounds.

This is the second occasion for the city to organise the event. In the last one decade. The city has been recognised as the Knowledge Capital of the country going by the development of the information technology and the life sciences industry.

There are 256 pharma companies in the state. Although a large chunk is  in the small and medium enterprises category, the big Bangalore-based companies with revenues above Rs. 1,000 crore are Micro Labs, Biocon and Strides. Among the leading multinational companies are Novo Nordisk, Novozymes, AstraZeneca, Lundbeck to  name  a few. There is also a huge presence of  clinical trial and contract research and manufacturing companies.

Among the leading lab instrumentation companies are Waters, Millipore, Sartorius and Pall Lifesciences.

The industry estimates that Karnataka pharma accounts for 1.2 per cent of the units in the country employing  20,000 direct and 30,000 indirect employment opportunities. The total turnover of the sector is Rs. 6,500 crore of which exports are Rs. 2,000 crore.

According to VS Acharya, Karnataka minister for higher  education who was in Manipal as the chief guest for inauguration of the IPC 2010, efforts will be made to observe a Pharmacists Day and institute awards for the pharmacists. The state government would also look into the proposal by the Karnataka drugs controller, DR BR  Jagashetty, on the need to set up  a Karnataka Institute for Pharmacy Education and Research  (KIPER) for  working professionals  on similar lines if the  NIPER, Chandigarh, he said. Efforts would be made to  enhance the standard of pharmacy courses in the colleges. The state would look at ways  to increase  the number of teachers for the colleges. It would also look at approving more branches for specialisation in pharmacy at the post graduate level in the Government College of Pharmacy.