The Pharmacy Council of India has permitted three colleges in Kerala to start the internationally recognized Pharm D course this academic year. This is the first time the Council permits colleges in Kerala to start the programme after the course was launched in the country in May 2008.

The Colleges which got permission this year are Amrita School of Pharmacy, Eranakulam, National College of Pharmacy, Kozhikodu and Al Shifa College of Pharmacy, Perinthalmanna in Malappuram district.

A few more colleges in the state are likely to get the green signal soon as the PCI has asked them to submit the required documents. The colleges have to submit signed copies of Memorandum of Understanding with major hospitals or the colleges should be attached with some medical colleges.

Amrita School of Pharmacy of the Amrita Deemed University will start two programs of the Pharm D simultaneously, Pharm D regular and Pharm D post baccalaureate.

Despite permission of PCI for two programmes, the National College of Pharmacy in Kozhikodu faces difficulty in starting both the programs as they are waiting for affiliation from Calicut University for their three year program, even as the college will commence the six year program (Pharm D regular) from June, sources from the college told Pharmabiz.

Al Shifa College of Pharmacy in Perinthalmanna, Malappuram is starting the six year Pharm D from this academic year for which the admission process has been started.

Dr KG Revikumar, director, Amrita School of Pharmacy said unlike in other colleges, which are offering these programmes, the students in his college will get a hospital environment from the first year onwards. The institute has students from India and outside. "Children of NRIs in America prefer to study in our college as more than 15,000 dollars are required for tuition fee for one year to do the course in States, where as we charge only one lakh rupees for one year. The faculties in the colleges are on par with international standards," he said.

According to him, compared to other colleges, Amrita School of Pharmacy is making reforms in the conduct of the course in line with western universities' standard and syllabus. "Wherever there is lacking, we will fill it up. Even in syllabus, while retaining the rules of the PCI, we add something to equate international merit. In America, the students of Pharm D are brought up through hospital atmosphere from the beginning of the course. The same system we will apply here," Dr Revikumar said. The director has undergone training in conducting the course in Michigan University in the US recently.

Students who opt for Pharm D will have to study five years of pharmacy in the college and attend a full time internship programme in the sixth year in a hospital, like medical students. The curriculum of the course includes regular pharmacy subjects along with exposure in clinical pharmacy practices. The major practice oriented subjects include Clinical pharmacy, Clinical Toxicology, Clinical Pharmacokinetics, Therapeutic Drug Monitoring, Pharmacoepidemiology and Bio pharmaceutics.

In Kerala, at present 25 Colleges are conducting B Pharm course, 23 colleges conducting Diploma in Pharmacy. Fifteen colleges have both the programs. M Pharm course is conducted only in two Colleges attached to Medical colleges in Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikodu.