The 26th Annual conference of the Indian Pharmacy Graduate's Association (IPGA) was held on April 2, 2011 in New Delhi, with the theme of 'Pharma opportunities and challenges in the new decade'. Even though the event clashed with the finals ICC World Cup, with India as one of the teams, the event was very well attended, a sign that the topic was as great a pull as the game. Dr S S Ghonkrokta, Director-Enforcement, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) was the guest of honour, while Dr S M Jharwal, Chairman, National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) was the chief guest for the occasion.
In his keynote address, Professor S K Kulkarni, Bombay College of Pharmacy, touched on the aspect of 'building an innovation eco-system in pharmaceutical sciences', saying that the quality of education and research done in our country needs to be looked at with concern because the goals still needed to be met. There is a shortage of specialised talent in system biology, clinical research, healthcare delivery and so on, which are disappointingly not in the regular pharmacy curriculum and need to be introduced in pharmacy education in order to rightly equip students with the knowledge base to thrive professionally. "The current lack of research infrastructure and funding (private and public), lack of inter and cross disciplinary teaching and learning, unmindful expansion of professional education are all distressing factors that exist because the right priorities are not kept in mind," said Kulkarni. "To overcome this and to establish an innovation eco-system there is a great need to firstly shun the old and unproductive mindset in the industry and overhaul educational and research approaches with vigour and imagination in order to contribute to the global knowledge bank. Secondly, we need to adopt flexible and interdisciplinary learning modes, while rightly identifying ambitious young individuals and institutions; fund, network and establish credible environment of entrepreneurs and alumni," he added.
Among the speakers present at the event, Mukta Arora, India Head-Global External R&D and Global Sourcing India Market, Eli Lilly and Company traced the evolution of the Indian Pharma industry with respect to the various niches and identified opportunities for students in the fields of manufacturing of api, CT material, drug product; research, clinical research, formulation research, in sales and marketing jobs at Indian and MNCs, community pharmacist, market research, hospital pharmacy management, drug development--adme/tox/safety, medicinal chemistry, synthetic chemistry, natural products research, large molecules-biologics, regulatory--clinical, and pharmacovigilence.
While Dr Veena Kohli, Vice President, Diagnova, RFCL, talked about the opportunities for students in the field of medical diagnostics, Dr B R Jagashetty, Drugs Controller, Karnataka, gave an insight into the vast field of regulatory affairs pertaining to pharmaceuticals. Dr Jaspreet Kaur, Head Quality Assurance and Training, Fortis Clinical Research, Faridabad, enlightened pharmacy students about career in clinical research, and Dr Varun Katyal, Assistant Professor, Empower School of Health, spoke about the more sought after fields that pharmacy students would be interested in and the right educational pathway to follow to pursue them.
The conference saw delegates from all over the country, from regulatory departments, the pharma industry, R&D, hospital, community and clinical pharmacy, academia, marketing and pharmacy students. Later in the evening, Priolkar was felicitated as the President Elect for the 63rd Indian Pharmaceutical Congress, 2011.
In his keynote address, Professor S K Kulkarni, Bombay College of Pharmacy, touched on the aspect of 'building an innovation eco-system in pharmaceutical sciences', saying that the quality of education and research done in our country needs to be looked at with concern because the goals still needed to be met. There is a shortage of specialised talent in system biology, clinical research, healthcare delivery and so on, which are disappointingly not in the regular pharmacy curriculum and need to be introduced in pharmacy education in order to rightly equip students with the knowledge base to thrive professionally. "The current lack of research infrastructure and funding (private and public), lack of inter and cross disciplinary teaching and learning, unmindful expansion of professional education are all distressing factors that exist because the right priorities are not kept in mind," said Kulkarni. "To overcome this and to establish an innovation eco-system there is a great need to firstly shun the old and unproductive mindset in the industry and overhaul educational and research approaches with vigour and imagination in order to contribute to the global knowledge bank. Secondly, we need to adopt flexible and interdisciplinary learning modes, while rightly identifying ambitious young individuals and institutions; fund, network and establish credible environment of entrepreneurs and alumni," he added.
Among the speakers present at the event, Mukta Arora, India Head-Global External R&D and Global Sourcing India Market, Eli Lilly and Company traced the evolution of the Indian Pharma industry with respect to the various niches and identified opportunities for students in the fields of manufacturing of api, CT material, drug product; research, clinical research, formulation research, in sales and marketing jobs at Indian and MNCs, community pharmacist, market research, hospital pharmacy management, drug development--adme/tox/safety, medicinal chemistry, synthetic chemistry, natural products research, large molecules-biologics, regulatory--clinical, and pharmacovigilence.
While Dr Veena Kohli, Vice President, Diagnova, RFCL, talked about the opportunities for students in the field of medical diagnostics, Dr B R Jagashetty, Drugs Controller, Karnataka, gave an insight into the vast field of regulatory affairs pertaining to pharmaceuticals. Dr Jaspreet Kaur, Head Quality Assurance and Training, Fortis Clinical Research, Faridabad, enlightened pharmacy students about career in clinical research, and Dr Varun Katyal, Assistant Professor, Empower School of Health, spoke about the more sought after fields that pharmacy students would be interested in and the right educational pathway to follow to pursue them.
The conference saw delegates from all over the country, from regulatory departments, the pharma industry, R&D, hospital, community and clinical pharmacy, academia, marketing and pharmacy students. Later in the evening, Priolkar was felicitated as the President Elect for the 63rd Indian Pharmaceutical Congress, 2011.
