The State of Delhi is likely to enact a law making degree in pharmacy (B-Pharm) the minimum qualification needed for a hospital pharmacist to practice in its territory. The state would also make it compulsory for the retail pharmacist to note down the registration number, along with the name of the doctor under whose prescription the medicine has been dispensed, in their registers. The move is meant to bring in efficiency in the functioning of hospital pharmacies and discourage the practice of sale of Schedule H drugs without prescription.

Informing this at the inaugural function of the 8th Annual Convention of All India Drugs Control Officer's Confederation (AIDCOC) here on October 10th, S P Aggarwal, principal secretary, Health and Family Welfare, Government of Delhi assured to offer all possible assistance to strengthen the functioning of the drug control department in the state.

He promised to look into the long pending demand of AIDCOC to give a more "respectable" designation to the technically qualified drug officials. Once the AIDCOC request get materialized, Delhi would be the second state in the country to change the designation of drug "inspectors" to drug control "officers" as it has been done in Rajasthan.

The inaugural function also had the presence of Mangat Ram Singhal and Dr Yoganand Shastri, minister of industry and minister of health respectively of Delhi State, as guests of honour. In their address, the ministers expressed willingness to look into the problems being faced by the department and to sanction sufficient number of posts to turn the functioning of the department more effective.

The convention was hosted by the Delhi Administration Drugs Control Gazetted Officers' Association and had as delegates, drug inspectors from across the country. Addressing the drug officials, Ashwini Kumar, Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) wanted them to be aware of the fast pace of changes that are happening in the drug regulation sector world over."The bench marks for efficiency has become stricter over the years. The scope of regulation has been enlarged to all kind of healthcare products. The time has come where India should also expand its scope of drug regulation to medical devices and healthcare products," he opined.

The conference had four technical sessions and a panel discussion on the theme "Role of Regulatory Officers in Healthcare." Dr R Venketaswaralu joint drug controller (West Zone), CDSCO, Mumbai spoke on the need for regulators to turn facilitators in his talk on "regulators – facilitators, needs and challenges." Dr Sanjeev Kumar, manager, QA & RA Stericat Gustings Pvt Ltd gave an overview on the emerging regulatory needs in medical devices segment. V N Seghal, ex-director Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) explained about invisible clues in crime detection to the delegates. The forth speaker during the technical session was Anil Kumar Chawla, vice-president QA & R&D, Panacea Biotech. The topic for his lecture was 'Vaccines, biologicals and biotechnology products - critical steps of manufacturing and inspection.'

The panel discussion was headed by Prof B D Miglani, a father figure in Indian Hospital Pharmacy. The experts who participated in the discussion included Rajiv Gulhati, CMD, Elli Lilly, S Krishnan, Consumer Coordination Council and Dr D P Ghosh, Sr VP, Albert David. Anand Prakash, special secretary, Delhi Government & Drug Controller-in-charge, S W Deshpande, new AIDCOC president, Ravi Uday Bhaskar, general secretary, AIDCOC, R D Garg, chairman Local Organising Committee and Ravi Kant, ecretary LOC, and Atul K Nasa, associate secretary LOC, were also present on the occasion.