With a view to improve the quality of pharmacy education in the country, the Union government is planning to introduce several measures including introduction of the integrated six-year course, Pharm D in the government medical colleges.

Government will also revise the curriculum of B Pharm and M Pharm courses and the regulations for the same have been drafted. The number of pharmacy degree colleges and the students intake will be increased in the coming years.

The Union minister of health and family welfare, Dr Harsh Vardhan announced the decision of the government in Parliament recently.

The health minister said a sum of Rs. 824.30 crore has been earmarked in the 12th Five Year Plan for setting up of pharmacy colleges in Government Medical Colleges. He pointed out that if an institution applies for starting pharmacy education, it has to increase admission capacity from 60 to 100 students in the degree course. The minster added that the basic goal and objective of M. Pharm programme would be to produce professionally competent pharmacists’ work force.

The government will also review and upgrade the minimum registrable qualification of pharmacists from diploma to degree in pharmacy. However, to give opportunity to diploma holders to upgrade their qualification to B. Pharm, the government has drafted regulations for ‘bridge course’ with emphasis on practice aspects of pharmaceutical sciences.

While answering a question in this regard, Dr Vardhan said in order to update the knowledge of pharmacists in line with the advancements in the field of pharmaceutical sciences, financial support to state pharmacy councils for conducting Continuing Education Programmes will be provided. According to him, the government is also in the process of framing the training modules for pharmacy teachers to train the trainers for effective implementation of course curriculum to raise the standards of pharmaceutical education in the country.