Health ministry to review draft on M Pharm and practice regulation
In order to set standards in pharmacy education and to bring about an ethics code in pharmacy practice, the health ministry will soon review the draft M Pharm and Pharmacy Practice Regulations framed by the Pharmacy Council of India (PCI).
“The need for an M Pharm regulation has caught the attention of the health ministry considering the challenges pharmacy colleges face in terms of setting quality standards in training. Approval from the government will translate into educational
regulation in post graduate studies with a clear and concrete mandate so that it is properly followed and adhered to by the pharmacy colleges across the country,” PCI president Dr B Suresh said.
“The objective of the M Pharm regulation would be to help the pharmacy institutes address gaps in the delivery of education in a qualitative manner. The regulation once implemented would bring about standards in terms of teacher- student ratio and the infrastructure required.”
M Pharm regulation meant to ensure quality
assurance in post graduate studies will most likely meet stiff resistance from the pharmacy colleges who don’t have funds to meet the requisite standards in terms of staff and infrastructure and hence quality assurance.
Besides this, implementation of the Practice Regulation will benefit the patients in a big way as it will draw an ethics code for the pharmacist to be followed as a part of his/her responsibility to educate patients about the medicines prescribed by the doctor.
The said regulation will bring under its purview all pharmacy professionals working in regulatory bodies, drug stores and academic institutions to cater to patient well being.
In order to further boost the professional development of pharmacists, PCI has also set aside funds for Continuing Education
Programme (CEP) in which an institute or state pharmacy council is entitled to get Rs 25,000 for running the CEP programme having a participation of 100 pharmacists.
These regulations are relevant today going by the upcoming trend of industry driven drug discovery and development. Many of the monographs in pharmacopoeia today for new drugs and devices rely on technology and information from the industry.
Source: CDSCO, New Delhi.