Academicians of pharmaceutical sciences from various educational institutions have welcomed the decision of the Union government to improve pharmacy education in the country by introducing Pharm D course in government medical colleges and increasing the number of institutions and the students intake there.

Hailing the announcement of health minister, Dr Harshvardhan, in this regard as a welcome move, the pharmacy teachers have commented that the minister’s dynamic initiative is an exemplary step towards the profession of pharmacy. Prof P Suresh, Principal of the Institute of Pharmacy & Technology, Cuttack, Orissa, said a need-based market driven dynamic curriculum for B. Pharm and M. Pharm with public-private partnership of industry-academia interaction process should be developed with an in-built provision for employability, skills/employment opportunities for all pharmacy graduates in the country.  

Likewise, the government should explore possibilities to discourage the practice of recruiting unqualified/under qualified persons of other streams in pharma industry as this will hinder the job opportunities for the pharmacy graduates.

Seeking the attention of the health minister in matters related to industry-academia interaction, Dr Suresh said the government should make it mandatory that the pharma industry needs to extend its support to the pharmacy educational institutions to upgrade their standards in tune with the requirements of the industry. In the same line, the Drugs & Cosmetics Act must be suitably amended in a profession friendly manner, emphasising on the need to recruit duly qualified pharmacy graduates in adequate numbers for its various operations.

Welcoming the union government’s supportive measures to pharmacy education, Dr K G Revikumar, director –research, Alshifa College of Pharmacy, Perinthalmanna in Kerala, said the union health ministry should take steps to constitute a competent and capable committee in order to study the present system of pharmacy education and its various components in the country and suggest measures to revamp the system on par with the global scenario.  

He said efforts are needed to create a strong coordination among AICTE, PCI and UGC because these agencies/authorities are controlling the pharmacy education. According to him, there were only four pharmacy colleges in the country till 1947, the number has increased to 1500 today.