The All India Drug Control Officers’ Confederation (AIDCOC) will soon approach the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) demanding to include pharmaceutical science in the optional subject list of UPSC’s civil services examinations.

AIDCOC, in association with the Delhi unit of Indian Pharmacy Graduates' Association, will soon submit the memorandum to the UPSC after mobilizing support from Pharmacy Council of India (PCI) and associations of pharmacy professionals and students, said Ravi Uday Bhaskar, secretary general of AIDCOC.

He said the association will send circulars in this regard to all the pharmacy colleges in India, students’ organizations, teachers associations and to the associations of college managements. Support of the leaders of pharma industry will also be sought.

Pharmaceutical science is a professional subject like medicine, engineering and architecture. Apart from other basic subjects, agriculture, veterinary, engineering and medicine are included in the curriculum of civil services examination, but pharmaceutical science is not included. It is, in fact, a kind of discrimination towards this noble profession and the subject, he said.

Atul Kumar Nasa, president of IPGA Delhi, said since pharmacy profession is a technical profession, a copy of the memorandum will be forwarded to All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) for support. He said pharmaceutical science, unlike other subjects, is a subject directly related to the health and welfare of the public, and pharmacists have become an integral and inseparable component of the Indian society. So, the opportunities to serve the community with administrative power should not be shunned in the case of pharmacy professionals.

M Dilip Kumar, Tamil Nadu state secretary of the Confederation while speaking to Pharmabiz said the pharmacists in India have been making this demand for the last 15 years to UPSC, but the efforts bore no fruit. He said if this subject is included in the list, the pharmacy professionals will get a chance to enter into the administrative side serving in various civil services positions.