‘4L pharma students graduate every year, they must get jobs’

Rajahmundry: National president of Indian Pharmaceutical Association (IPA) TV Narayana spoke to TOI on the sidelines of the state-level elocution competition held at Vikas Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences on Saturday.
He stressed on the need to implement the Pharmacy Practice Rules And Regulations 2015 in the country. He opined that it would enhance employment opportunities for pharmacists in private as well as in government sectors. He reminded that four lakh pharmacy students graduate from 3,850 colleges in India and the need for them to find employment.
He strongly objected to The Drugs and Cosmetics (10th Amendment) Rules, 2017, that allows nurses, Asha and Anganwadi workers to prescribe drugs besides pharmacists. He said that IPA has been registering its protest at national forums on this Act. He observed that while pharmacists are valued in the pharma industry, they do not enjoy the same status in the larger community.
Narayana, who is also the president of south east asian region forum of World Health Organisation comprising 14 countries, said that 10 major threats, including air pollution, climate change, non-communicable diseases, alcohol and tobacco usage and anti-microbial resistance have been identified by WHO that are causing 44 million deaths every year in the world and that is 70% of total deaths.
With regard to manufacturing of drugs in India, Narayana said, “India is being called the manufacturing hub of the world and it is in third place in manufacturing of drugs in the world.” He explained that 33 billion dollars worth of drugs are being manufactured in India and 17 billion dollars worth drugs was exported in 2018-19 and the target for 2019-20 is to reach 65 billion-dollar mark. He mentioned that 40% generic drugs used in US are being exported from India and 20% of drugs used in UK are being exported by India. He added that India is exporting vaccines and other drugs to 40 other countries.

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