The first ever International Congress of Indian Pharmacy Graduates (ICIPG - 2003), will be held at the Anna University campus at Chidambaram in Chennai.

The two-day conference, to be held on November 8 and 9, 2003, will have a participation of over 3000 delegates from different parts of the country and special invitees from abroad. The profile of the participants includes pharmacy graduates and postgraduates, pharmacy college faculties, pharmacists, pharmaceutical industrialists, government officials etc.

Special invitees, including NRI pharmacists and industry entrepreneurs from countries like U.K., U.S.A., Australia, Japan, Thailand and Singapore are expected to participate in the event, said S.Ranganathan, Organising Committee Chairman of ICIPG -2003.

He said the pharmacy department of the Anna University, which is now celebrating its platinum jubilee year, hosts the event. ICIPG 2003 would act as a platform for highlighting the grievances and professional problems faced by the pharmacists.

The event would explore ways to upgrade the standard of pharmacy education in the country, and ways to improve it to global standards. Further, the event would try to create the necessary momentum for gaining the due recognition to Indian pharmacists and to institute a separate identity to pharmacy education at the university level in Tamilnadu, said Ranganathan.

He said the Tamilnadu Chapter of the Indian Pharmacy Graduates Association (IPGA) is the first state level branch of IPGA to take up the challenging task of organizing the first of its kind international congress.