The annual conference of Southern Regional Indian Pharmacological Society (SRIPS), to be held at the PSG Institute of Medical Sciences and Research in Coimbatore, from November 12 to 14, will have a three day workshop and conference on how safely clinical trials can be conducted in India.

The three days program will include a full day workshop and two days conferences, which will be attended by around one thousand people including pharmacologists, researchers, academia and industry captains, said Dr S Ramalingam, principal, PSG Institute of Medical Sciences and Research.

Besides Tamil Nadu, other states participating would be Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Goa and Pondicherry. The researchers will present their scientific findings in the seminar.

The programme, organized by PSG Institute of Medical Science and PSG College of Pharmacy, is aimed at projecting India’s potential in drug discovery with an in-depth focus on emerging clinical trials off-shoring destination. The theme of the Conference is ‘Enquire, Educate and Elevate’.

Dr M Ramanathan, professor and head of Department of Pharmacology, PSG College of Pharmacy, who is the Organizing secretary of the conference, said Dr V P Kamboji, director of Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow will inaugurate the conference. The delegates attending the conference are mainly Pharmacologists having either medical or pharmacy degree. Dr K P Mohan Kumar of Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Kolkata will deliver the 'Dr Lalitha Kameswaran Memorial Oration'. Around 21 eminent speakers in various fields of Pharmacology will speak on.

Opportunities of Clinical Trials, Changing trends in Drug Discovery and Research in Drug discovery in India are some of the key topics highlighted for discussions in the seminars. Since the pharmacologists play an important role in clinical trials, a separate session on bioethics in clinical trials is also charted, said Dr Ramanathan.