The Indian pharma industry’s top 20 per cent workforce representing the  pharmaceutical industry are on par with global standards, said Uma Nandan Misra, dean, Pharma Training Institute.

The candidates coming into this sector are qualified and armed with post graduate and doctoral qualifications. Yet they need hand holding in the quality management systems which is core to manufacture and research. There is a huge shortfall of candidates trained in quality control. The demand for quality conscious and industry ready-workforce is vast. Once trained, these candidates form part of the global pool of pharma industry, he added.

However maintenance of quality of products has to trickle down from the top management. Therefore we see that the workforce growth will be at a faster pace if they have specific training in quality management systems. In addition, there should be adequate encouragement coming in from the top management for trained and performing quality control managers to take independent decisions and be accountable, especially related to quality systems like good manufacturing practices. Candidates can serve in any department of the pharma industry. We do see a significant requests coming in from pharma companies to train the new-age workforce, Misra told Pharmabiz.

The move to be aggressive in training candidates also ensues from the Drugs Control General of India's notification which has targeted that by 2018, pharma sector personnel will need focused training across specializations.  In order to play a critical role generating the trained workforce,  Pharma Training Institute has submitted its  application for affiliation with Life Sciences Sector Skill Development Council for 5 non-PMKVY programs and the approval is expected shortly.

Now the request to train is driven by the shortfall. The industry wants trained candidates to be adept and exposed to all aspects of international audits. This is primarily because for the pharma industry, exports are more lucrative compared to the domestic sales, he said.

This is where Pharma Training Institute has taken on the onus to guide, educate and expose fresh science and pharmacy graduates  to cater to the industry needs across the spectrum of departments. During 2017, the institute has successfully imparted training in sales & marketing to 55 employees of Micro Labs, Group Pharmaceuticals and Embiotic Labs successfully.

Similarly it has also trained about 40 students in quality control from Oxford Science College, MSR Science College and few pharmacists from Krupanidhi College of Pharmacy. Besides these three value added  industrial orientation programmes were conducted for 175 final year pharmacy students in three pharmacy colleges of Adichunchanagiri, Al-Ameen and SJM.

We have managed to record the highest training of 270 candidates in 2017.  This is driven by the industry need which is now going all out to hire candidates trained for specific specializations. The move will reinstate the fact that India’s top 20 pharmaceutical workforce on par with global standards, said Misra.