Address at the Silver Jubilee Celebrations of College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Berhampur, Orissa

Pharma Vision and Education

"Knowledge makes you great"

I am delighted to participate in the Silver Jubilee Celebrations of College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Berhampur. I would like to congratulate the Director, the faculty members and staff for shaping young minds into Pharma expertise to contribute to quality healthcare delivery. I am happy that this college is preparing students for Diploma in Pharmacy, Bachelor degree in Pharmacy and Post-graduate programmes in pharmaceutics, pharmaceutical chemistry and pharmaceutical analysis and quality assurance. During the last twenty five years the college has produced over 1,500 diploma holders, 1,200 graduates, and 50 post graduates who have joined in various disciplines of the pharmaceutical profession both in India as well as abroad. I suggest that College of Pharmaceutical sciences can have the alumni website, where the members can post their experiences which can be shared by all the alumni, the staff and students of the college. I would like to talk on the topic "Pharma Vision and Education".

Pharma Vision

The global production of pharmaceuticals, branded and generics put together is of the order of $550 billion. The Indian Pharma industry at present has a turnover of $12.5 billion of generics for domestic and export markets against the production of $78 billion worth of generics in the world. Pharma Council has evolved the Pharma Vision 2020; I have suggested that Pharma community should identify all missions which will make India the leader in drug production. We should set a target of producing 40% of world generics production. India has got a core competence of producing cost effective and quality Pharma products. The Pharma specialists assembled here and the students studying in various disciplines must keep these targets in mind and contribute adequately for the realization of Indian Pharma Vision 2020, for which acquisition of knowledge is indeed an important need.

Pharmacy and healthcare delivery

In India, currently we have five hundred sixty thousand Pharma specialists and Pharma scientists. Seventy-five per cent of this human resource is involved in distribution and retailing of drugs in community and hospital sectors. The balance 15-20% is deployed in manufacturing, quality, R&D, regulatory sectors and in academia. The remaining 5-10 percent go for higher studies. There are about 500 diploma and about an equal number of degree institutions in pharmacy with an annual intake of about 30,000 in each course. In addition, about 12 post-graduate degree specializations are available with an annual intake of about 3,000 students. It is projected that by 2020, the demand for Pharma specialists at various levels will be over 1.7 million in our country.

While on the industrial pharmacy front, we seem to have done well, the pharmacy degree program is required to be realigned with the job requirements. Also, there is a need to restructure the diploma course which will provide the necessary skill and behaviour for discharging of professional obligations in community and hospital pharmacy. At the level of the primary health centers, where there is a shortage of medical and nursing professionals, pharmacists can play an important role in dispensing and counseling. In this context, pharmacist?s valuable services can be relied upon for carrying out simple micro-biological tests for malaria, TB, etc. He or she can also dispense medicines, monitor health status, take feedback from doctors, and counsel patients. At the post-graduate and doctoral level, the programs should be made more application oriented. We must challenge traditional thinking in a world that is ever changing. In the context of changing perspectives, we have to develop a strategy to bring about continuous upgradation in pharmacy education to meet the changing needs of the profession.

Community Pharmacy

The first and foremost requirement is to enlighten the consumer about the role of pharmacists as an important member of the healthcare team. It is my strong belief that knowledge and expertise of a professional has to be enhanced so that he can contribute his best to the society. Pharmacists must be equipped with the state-of-the-art knowledge so that he / she can advise patients and serve as an interface between the prescriber and consumer of medicines. Hospitals and doctors must ensure that pharmacist has patient specific information so that he/she can counsel the patients under their guidance. This will infuse confidence in him. For example, for hypertension, diabetes and asthma intervention by specially trained pharmacists can provide patient education and monitor patient compliance. He should communicate regularly with patient?s physician for early intervention in drug related problems. The pharmacist can also be a valuable contributor to family planning, TB control, malaria education, HIV/AIDS information and prevention, vaccination, and anti-smoking campaigns. The pharmacist?s intervention in such community medication management would substantially improve health care of our people. These aspects must be included in the current and prospective training programs.

Hospitals and Clinical Pharmacy Practice

Hospitals can derive considerable benefits from a pharmacist if he is adequately trained in clinical pharmacy practices for providing cost effective treatment to patients. Such training will also help government hospitals to provide better healthcare delivery particularly in rural areas. Clinical pharmacists can also assist in setting-up of drug information centers. For adding value to healthcare delivery, multi-disciplinary approach involving medical, nursing, and pharmacy professional is desirable. Hence, the pharmacy course should provide knowledge to the students on information on the rationale for using a particular drug, chemical stability of dosage forms, proper storage, under- or over-use of medication, and adverse effects of drugs. This will enable the Pharma specialists to provide the right type of counseling to the patients. The pharmacy curriculum may be suitably modified keeping these needs in mind.

Industrial Pharmacy

Pharmacists play a key role in the industry. To keep pace with the changes in the international scenario of customer needs, pharmacists have to aggressively shift paradigms. We have to look beyond process development capabilities towards new drug research with adequate attention to quality, costs, and time dimensions. We need Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) capabilities for drug discovery research, new drug delivery systems, state-of-the-art packaging systems, automation, flexibility in manufacturing, and reliability of products. To minimize quality defects, we must change our mindsets for measurement from percentage to Six Sigma and improve process capabilities using statistical tools for consistent quality. The quality building process requires training people in advanced instrumentation techniques and information technology, exposing people to best practices, and impregnating them with a sense of security and team work. These characteristics must be the focus for training industrial pharmacists.

International Competitiveness

To be internationally competitive, we should incorporate courses in regulatory jurisprudence so that newer legislations, domestic as well as international, are understood and implemented with utmost care and speed. Our courses must include exposure to guidelines issued by International Conference on Harmonization (ICH), Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), Good Laboratory Practices (GLP), Good Clinical Practices (GCP) and Generic Clearance Procedures for pharmaceutical products. Also, for submissions of technical dossiers for exports, we must familiarize students with regulatory specifications of international agencies and with our national book of standards for drugs, the Indian Pharmacopoeia, and other similar international compendia. As you may be aware, the Government has decided to share India?s traditional knowledge in medicine with other countries in a digitally documented form so that they can reject any patent application in their countries which use India?s centuries old wisdom. This is an essential step for protecting our intellectual property right.

Upgradation of the pharmacy education system

For enabling pharmacists in India to offer world class professional service, we must create continuing education as a pre-requisite for all pharmacists. The education system must train him or her to become lifelong learner. Pharmacy colleges can have a collaborative program with Pharma industries and hospitals for designing an appropriate continuing education course, which can be given through tele-education delivery system.

Pharma Education should also empower the students with moral leadership in their way of dealing with healthcare delivery system.

Moral leadership

Moral leadership involves two aspects. First, it requires the ability to have compelling and powerful dreams or vision of human betterment. Moral leadership requires a disposition to do the right thing and influence others also to do the right things. There is a perception that a large number of pharmaceutical products sold in India are counterfeit or of substandard quality. These drugs are generally made by unscrupulous elements and supplied surreptitiously to chemist shops through illegal channels. The pharmacy education has an important role to play in equipping the students with the knowledge and ability to detect the entry of unauthorized drugs into circulation. The pharmaceutical curriculum must include subjects which will enable detection of spurious pharmaceutical products by all pharmacists.

Conclusion

For preparing future pharmacists with expertise, high values and ethical principles, we must build in our curriculum attributes enshrined in Good Education Practices such as care-giver, decision maker, communicator, leader, manager, life-long learner and teacher. As you are aware, profile of drugs are continuously varying in view of the characterization of the genes and the chromosomes. It is possible to design a genetic drug in future to suit a particular person with a particular disease. Pharma curriculum must include gene characterization and proteomics in the syllabus since it will be the future trend.

For preparing pharmacists towards drug discovery and development research, continuous evaluation and updation of educational programs is required with the introduction of molecular biology, biotechnology, nanotechnology, pharmaco-genomics, pharmaco-vigilance, pharmaco-economics, pharmaco-epidemiology, and a host of tools like molecular modelling, combinatorial chemistry, high throughput screening, etc.

I congratulate all the members of College of Pharmaceutical Sciences during the Silver Jubilee Celebrations of the College. My best wishes to the Pharma community assembled here in their mission of quality healthcare delivery to all the citizens of the country particularly in the rural areas.

May God bless you.

Question and Answers Session with the students

1. How can we provide health care facilities to economically poor senior citizens of India and what are the possible ways to meet their expenses through government?

- Jaya Gopal Meher, B.Pharm, 7th Semester

Ans: For economically poor citizens the Government hospitals and public health centers provide free treatment. These institutions are fully funded by the Government. I have come across an economically viable model which provides quality treatment to the needy patients in Karnataka. In this model individuals are required to pay Rs. 10 per person per month towards membership fee. Government makes 50% contribution. The combined revenue has been found to be sufficient to meet the expenses for most complex treatment required by some of the patients, in state-of-the-art corporate hospitals, if the membership exceeds 1.5 million people. I would suggest the College of Pharmaceutical Sciences to create such a scheme in the rural areas adjoining Berhampur.

2. Radio pharmaceuticals are useful generally in diagnosis and particularly in some cancers. But they are costlier. How it can be made affordable for a common man?

- Sagarika Padhi, B.Pharm, 7th Semester

Ans: The atomic energy establishments have got a production setup for manufacturing radio isotopes for diagnostics and treatment. These radio isotopes are also available commercially. They have a short half life, leading to a short shelf life. This problem has to be handled by proper transportation system and number manufacturing centers distributed across the country.

3. Why large scale pharmaceutical industries are not starting their venture in Orissa, where as good number of pharmaceutical graduates is passing out from different pharmacy institutions and Orissa is also rich in natural resources?

- Vikas Sharma, B.Parm, 8th Semeser

Ans: Enterprenuers normally emanate from the R&D and industrial environment of a particular state. Just like steel industry, aluminum industry, I am sure Pharma industry will also find a place in Orissa. The Honorable Chief Minister can consider a public private partnership pharma industrial initiative.

4. A good number of students of our institution qualify in GATE with high score but they do not get admission in Government colleges outside the state as the admission procedure over there is marred by State quotas. Can we have a solution to this problem so that GATE qualified students from private colleges get a fair deal, remaining above regionalism?

- Swasati Panigrahi, B.Pharm, 8th Semester

Ans: Higher education is competitive. The state institutions allot certain percentages for other states. One has to compete. Only solution will be that more number of PG courses can come in Orissa Pharma colleges.

5. Research grants and funds are only extended to Government institutions but not to non-government institutions. What measures can be taken to extend research grants to non Governmental institutions?

- Debasis Das, M.Pharm, 2nd Semester

Ans: The organizations like CSIR, DRDO, DAE support many private institutions apart from government institutions. It is essential for the faculty members to establish an R&D link between the private institutions and the government laboratories.

6. Drug discovery demands in-depth knowledge in the realm of quantum mechanics thermodynamics and acquaintance with state-of-the-art facilities in synthetic chemistry. There is not sufficient scope of learning the aforementioned subjects during B.Pharm and M.Pharm course studies. So it is not expected from a teacher with pharmacy background that, they will teach them very efficiently. So to render the required background to the students a group of teachers are required who are authorities in these fields. What do you suggest to meet out justice to the students?

- K. Swapna, M.Pharm, 2nd Semester

Ans: Normally, every aspect cannot be taught in courses of education. Good teachers normally recommend good books to research students to acquire knowledge towards their project. Open courseware in many of the subjects with quality content are available for self study and specialization. Introduction of Ph.D programme in the college will bring large number of specialist into the college who can help post-graduate students.

7. In the civil service examinations the subjects of other streams like engineering, medical sciences, management sciences etc. are considered for optional papers but why not pharmacy subjects are included as optional papers?

- Rajani Behera, M.Pharm, 2nd Semester

Ans: I have discussed the matter with Union Public Service Commission (UPSC). They will take up the matter of including pharmacy subjects for optional papers in civil services examination after acceptance of Alag Committee recommendations by the Government.