With the winding up of several pharmacy colleges offering D Pharm in the state, the number of pharmacists registration with the Karnataka Pharmacy Council has come down drastically during the last couple of years in the state.  The pharmacy colleges offering D Pharm have fallen from 130 a couple of years ago to 80 at present. This is also seen to stall its efforts to appoint pharmacy inspectors.

The Council was receiving on an average of 65 to 75 pharmacists registrations every month. The closure of the D Pharm colleges has a cascading effect on the Council’s income generation through pharmacist registration fees. In turn, the reduction in income is also a serious blow to the appointment of pharmacy inspectors. “It is now very difficult for us to work when registrations are just trickling in,” Dr. DA Gundu Rao, president, Karnataka Pharmacy Council told Pharmabiz.

In September 2014, the Council was scouting to appoint pharmacy inspectors as the two year tenure of its 60 inspectors were coming to an end . But now with the fall in the number of diploma pharmacy holders is now impacting its efforts to appoint pharmacy inspectors too, he added.

Now with a paucity of new registrations of pharmacists, we are unable to take up new projects. The state has seen a decline in pharmacy colleges offering D Pharm primarily because poor support from the government to encourage this course. In fact, D Pharm is indispensable in the wake of growing demand for medicines. Another issue is that with students opting for degree course over the diploma, has led to paucity of lecturers. The admissions to colleges are also poor for D Pharm, pointed out Dr. Rao.

On the contrary, there is ample encouragement by state governments of Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh among others  that has led to influx of students from the north to access these institutions over Karnataka, said the Dr. Rao.

Andhra Pradesh accounts for 430 pharmacy colleges offering D Pharm and Maharashtra accounts for over 300 institutions as compared to a mere 80 colleges in Karnataka. Uttar Pradesh too has each district having five colleges each offering D Pharm.

The private colleges in Karnataka offering D Pharm have made no effort to attract admissions from the local population. Most colleges are seen to prefer  international students besides candidates from other states in the country. “This is a serious shortcoming for the state. In fact, it is vital to ensure that the students from Karnataka are allowed to take up D Pharm as this will increase the number of pharmacy trade outlets in the other districts of the state,” he says.

With the Karnataka government increasing its focus on the backward districts, Harpanahalli in Davengere and Humnabad in Bidar opened 5 colleges. This encourages local students to take up the course. The government needs to ensure that there is no further decline in the number of pharmacy colleges and encourage local candidates to take up D Pharm., says Dr. Rao.