The 57th Indian Pharmaceutical Congress (IPC) has exhorted pharmacy professionals to equip themselves to face the growing responsibilities in the wake of global challenges in drug discovery research. It is observed that the discovery of more and more new drugs and drug treatment options has created bigger demands for pharmacists. The IPC declared today's pharmacists as both professional scientists and qualified healthcare practitioners who can apply their skills to several areas of the development pipeline.

Setting the tone for discussions on the theme ‘pharmacists role in drug discovery research’, V C Nannapaneni, president, Indian Pharmaceutical Congress Association (IPCA) said that the discipline of pharmacy has made enormous progress and matured as a distinctly independent branch with a special status.

In his presidential address, Nannapaneni noted that the coming years will find an increase in demand for qualified pharmacists in all sectors in India and abroad. "Keeping this in mind we need to equip our future pharmacists with a wide range of skills to explore the new frontiers in pharmacy", he said.

There is an immediate need to acquaint the pharmacy students in GLP, GCP, validations, analytical techniques, innovations in pharmaceutical formulation technology, clinical research, bio equivalence studies, intellectual property rights, quality management, regulatory management, discovery research, personality development and communication skills, he noted.

"Given the dichotomy in the profession of pharmacy, what we need today is an educational philosophy and methodology and an updated curriculum, which is need based to impart practical knowledge, technical skills and the latest developments in pharma industry," said Nannapaneni.

He suggested that the institutions including academic regulatory bodies like All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and Pharmacy Council of India (PCI) have to emphasise on quality education, utilise appropriate strategies and tools to ensure that students and pharmacists have the right knowledge, skills and attitudes to assume responsibility for their own learning and professional development and become self directed, independent learners.

The new fields of human resources identified for pharmacy professionals are clinical research (clinical trials, new molecule research, bioequivalence studies, post marketing surveillance), herbal drug research, regulatory affairs (domestic and international), R&D (formulations and active pharmaceutical ingredients), metabolism and pharmacokinetics, pharmacology, intellectual property, project management and quality management.

The presidential address also highlighted synthetic organic chemistry skills, availability of good hospitals with highly qualified physicians and pharma professionals, large and diverse patient pools for conducting clinical trials as the factors which are conducive for making India a hub of clinical research activity. Excellent data infrastructure facilities, comparative cost advantage, price competitiveness and large pool of qualified English speaking professionals were also identified as India’s strengths.