The Indian Pharmacy Graduates Association (IPGA), Tamil Nadu chapter has demanded the state government to strengthen the drug control mechanism and to upgrade the pharmacy education in order to ensure a quality drug monitoring system in the state.

The state is in need of more drugs control officials to curtail prevalence of spurious drugs and illegal pharmacy practices in Tamil Nadu. The department also needs up gradation of facilities to track such practices, maintained N.Selvaraju, director of drugs control who was also the chief patron for the national conference held at Chennai.

The Association also demanded to set up a regional institute of pharmaceutical education and research, equivalent to the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER), Mohali. In the 23rd National Conference of IPGA, the organizers also requested the government to strengthen the drug control department by employing at least one assistant drugs controller in each district.
He added that the curriculum for pharmacy education in the state should be restructured to fit the current requirements of the profession. The Government should also set up a separate directorate for pharmacy education to avoid messing up with the administration of Directorate of Medical Education, according to M Dhilip Kumar, secretary IPGA (TN).

While answering the demands in his inaugural address, KKSS Ramachandran, State Minister for Health and Family Welfare revealed that the government would take steps to fill 213 existing vacancies of pharmacists in the health department within next 15 days. He also assured better consideration to the pharmaceutical industry in the State and said that the demands of the association will be taken into consideration in the near future.

The IPGA conference witnessed the discussion of various topics including global trends in pharma opportunities and challenges, challenges of Indian pharmaceutical industry, new drug delivery and development, patenting system in India and NRDC services, commercialisation of patent and overview of clinical trial. The conference also hosted poster sessions for students from various universities.