Different from other state branches, the West Bengal branch of the Indian Pharmaceutical Association, as part of its National Pharmacy Week celebrations this year, is organising seven seminars and two workshops, spread over eight days, involving eminent experts in pharma and allied sectors from across the country, with support from pharmacy educational institutions in the state.

The formal inauguration of the programme started on November 15, at the Dr. Triguna Sen auditorium, Jadavpur University in Kolkata, said Dr. Subhash C Mandal, president of WB IPA.

He said this year IPA is celebrating the 54th National Pharmacy Week (NPW) with the theme, ‘Responsible Use of Antibiotics Saves Lives’. Incidentally, he added, WHO is also celebrating the week, from November 16 to 22, as ‘Antibiotic Awareness Week’.

On November 16, a workshop on the subject, 'upgradation of working pharmacists,’ was held at the Calcutta Institute of Pharmaceutical Technology (CIPT) in Howrah.

On November 17th and 18th, students of different pharmacy colleges will hold ‘Students Day’ and various programmes based on the subject will be conducted in each institution.

On November 19th, seminar on ‘responsible use of antibiotics saves lives’ will be held at the Babsayee Samity auditorium at Tarekeswar  in Hooghly. Simultaneously, a seminar on the same subject will be organised at the J.C.Ghosh Polytechnic auditorium in Kolkata.

On November 20th, there will be an interactive seminar on this year’s theme at the Institute of Pharmacy at Kalyani in Nadia. November 21, will be observed as ‘Hospital Pharmacy Day’, and a seminar on ‘hospital pharmacy’ will be held at the zilla parishad hall in Hooghly. A cultural programme is arranged in the evening on the same day at Surya Sen auditorium at Jodhpur Park in Kolkata.

One workshop on ‘combating antimicrobial resistance’ and a seminar on the same subject will be conducted at Durgapur in Burdwan district on November 22.

Dr. V.S.V. Vadlamudi Rao, president, IPA, Dr. C.M. Ghosh, director of drugs control, West Bengal and Partha Paul, managing director of Palsons Derma Pvt. Ltd. Kolkata will speak on the subject.

Along with, different sessions on various subjects will be held. Dr. Nirmal Gurbani, professor, Institute of Health Management in Jaipur will deliver on ‘how vulnerable our health system to the onslaught of AMR’.

Manjiri Gharat, vice president and chairperson, Community Pharmacy Division, IPA, Mumbai, will speak on the subject, ‘strategy against drug resistance to tuberculosis, a re-emerging disease’.

'Regulatory measures to prevent antimicrobial resistance’ is the subject for Sankar Gupta, former deputy drugs controller, CDSCO, and ‘Nosocomial infection and antimicrobial resistance’ is the subject for Dr. Shantanu Tripathy, head of department of clinical pharmacology, School of Tropical Medicine, Kolkata.

Dr. Anjan Adhikari, associate professor at R.G. Kar Medical College  will talk of ‘pharmacovigilance of antibiotics and role of pharmacists’.

After a panel discussion at 4 PM, the eight days programme will end with a valedictory session at 5.30 PM.