An association of retired drug control officials based in Chennai has sought the immediate intervention of the Pharmacy Council of India (PCI) for drafting common education regulations (ER) for all courses on pharmacy and to bring them under one umbrella with one controlling authority.

In a letter sent to the apex council, they said pharmacy education should not be controlled by All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) or any other body other than PCI. Pharmacy Act is there to regulate the profession of pharmacy which includes pharmacy education also.

Currently, the course Diploma in Pharmacy is controlled by the PCI, B Pharm is regulated by AICTE and the PG courses are run and controlled by universities empowered under the UGC. The universities alone fix the minimum qualifications for the PG courses and prepare their syllabus with no role for PCI.

The Association said the PCI should take the initiative to prepare a common education regulation for all pharmacy courses and they should be brought under the PCI. Despite several representations to the Council in this regard, the PCI has not so far prepared an ER for degree, PG and PhD courses, they alleged.

Pharmacy Act 1948 was implemented in the year 1948 itself to regulate the profession of pharmacy which included production, quality control, dispensing of drugs and pharmacy education in India. On the basis of section 10 of the act, the pharmacy council of India drafted an education regulation (ER) in 1991 for exclusive control of diploma in pharmacy (D Pharm). But this ER 1991 did not prescribe the minimum qualification or the syllabus pattern for the degree, PG and PhD programmes in pharmacy. This was a major defect of the central council, said CV Ramiah, president of the association.

According to him, the MBBS course is regulated by medical council of India and the course syllabus is also prepared by it. Likewise, BDS and B Sc in Nursing are controlled by DCI and NCI respectively. But in the case of Pharmacy education, two authorities are empowered to regulate the courses. Universities conducting B Pharm and M Pharm programs are burdened to approach two councils, AICTE and PCI. An old verdict of Madras High Court says that PCI approval is not required for B Pharm course, AICTE approval is enough. This happened because ER 1991 does not specify any regulation for degree in pharmacy, he said.

Section 10 of the Pharmacy Act says about education regulations, section 12 stands for approved courses for study and examination and section 14 specifies the qualification for pharmacists. These sections also mention the minimum qualifications required for a person to register as a pharmacist under the act. Ramiah said if these sections are to be implemented properly, the pharmacy education should be controlled by one authority. He is preparing a detailed representation to the PCI and to the union government in this regard, said he.

To a question Ramiah said even though there was provision in the pharmacy act to control production, quality control and dispensing of drugs, the production and quality control of drugs are regulated by the drugs control department staff only. Dispensing comes under both Pharmacy Act and Drugs and Cosmetics (D&C) Act, he added.