The Scientific Committee of Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission (IPC), the main organ of IPC that is responsible for all technical decisions, is to convene its first meeting on January 16, 2006. The meeting is to formulate long and short-term strategies for developing IPC into a world-class organisation.
According to sources, the development of IP Reference Standards will be one of the most important items on the agenda. The IPC would work out the actual working mechanism needed for making this possible. The role and scope of collaborating labs, the exact nature of the system will all be worked out. The IPC has already circulated a detailed background note to all its scientific committee members to prepare themselves for the meeting.
The Scientific Committee, headed by veteran scientist Dr Nitya Anand, ex-director, Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow, will also finalise the functions that are to be assigned to the various expert subject committees being formed under the IPC. The meeting would mark the beginning of serious business for IPC, sources added. As Pharmabiz had reported earlier, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare had very recently finalised the list of 23 experts to be part of the highest scientific body in IPC. The tenure of the committee is five years with one third of its members getting retired on a random basis every two years. Dr P R Pabrai, ex-director, CIPL, Ghaziabad is the vice-chairman of the committee.
The members of the committee are Professor Saranjit Singh, NIPER, Mohali, Professor V. K. Kapoor, Punjab University, Chandigarh, Dr. V. K. Lal, Dy. Director, Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic & Siddha, New Delhi, Dr. D. B. Anantha Narayana, Head, Herbals Research, Hindustan Lever Research Ltd., Mumbai, Dr. Anup Mishra, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi., Professor P. Rama Rao, Director, NIPER, Dr. Anil Paul Kariath, Managing Director, Sartorius India Ltd., Bangalore, Prafull D. Sheth, Formerly Executive Director, Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd., Dr. P. G. Shrotriya, Chief Executive, Elite Pharma Consultants, Navi Mumbai, Dr. K. M. Thomas, Vice-President, APL Research Centre, Hyderabad, Dr. Vinay G Nayak, Executive Vice-President, Quality Operations & Regulatory Compliances, Lupin Ltd., Mumbai, Mr. Vinod Arora, Director (Pharma Research), Ranbaxy Research Laboratories, Dr. V. A. Srinivasan, Executive Director, Indian Immunologicals Ltd., Hyderabad, Dr. S. N. Pal, Director, Technical Operations, Hindustan Latex Ltd., Thiruvananthapuram, Partha Jyoti Gogoi, Director (I/C), Regional Drugs Testing Laboratory (RDTL), Gauhati, J. L. Sipahimalani, CMA Laboratories, Mumbai, Dr. Prem K. Gupta, Ex-Drugs Controller (I), New Delhi, R. S. Iyer, Formerly Vice-President, Quality Assurance, Glaxo Laboratories Ltd., Bangalore, Dr. Hemnalini Kumar, Director, Bio-Products, Salesworth India Ltd., Bangalore and Dr. T. G. Chandrashekhar, Director & Head, Analytical Research, Ranbaxy Research Laboratories. Dr G N Singh, director, Central Indian Pharmacopoeia Laboratory, Ghaziabad is the ex-officio member and Member-Secretary.