Pharmacy Education in India: Past, Present and Future
Pharmacy education in India: Past, present and future
The life of pharmacists is simply the story of people with a purpose “to produce new and better remedies in man’s fight against diseases and malnutrition”. Thus pharmacist is the key element of any country’s pharmaceutical spectrum and pharmacy education is the base foundation on which the edifice of the whole pharmaceutical industry, technology, research and clinical pharmacy are built. The primary purpose of pharmacy education is to develop technical human resources, novel approach and vision with respect to teaching, research and development and training future health care professionals in the field of drugs and pharmaceuticals.
If we look back at the history of pharmacy profession or practice in India, we will have to go back to the year 1811 when Scotch M Bathgate opened a chemist shop in Kolkatta. This was probably the beginning of pharmacy practice in India. In 1824, the east India Company felt the need to train Indians for medical practice and establish medical colleges for their own interest. Though, at that time pharmacy practice was established in England, no initiative was taken to train Indians for effective pharmacy practice.
Subsequently, in the Bengal Municipal Act, 1884, a provision was made for having some qualifications to dispense medicine. As per the provision, a one-year course was introduced for training persons for dispensing medicine. In 1899, the compounder-training course was introduced in Chennai. In 1928, the State Medical Faculty of Bengal started a two-year course for training compounders.
In 1932, at Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Prof. Mahadeva Lal Schroff with his chemical technology back ground, urged Pt. M. M. Malviyaji to start a separate branch of Pharmaceutical Sciences at BHU. Pt. Malviyaji realized its importance and Schroff was given the green signal to organize this new discipline in India, for the first time Prof. Schroff introduced Pharmaceutical
The life of pharmacists is simply the story of people with a purpose “to produce new and better remedies in man’s fight against diseases and malnutrition”. Thus pharmacist is the key element of any country’s pharmaceutical spectrum and pharmacy education is the base foundation on which the edifice of the whole pharmaceutical industry, technology, research and clinical pharmacy are built. The primary purpose of pharmacy education is to develop technical human resources, novel approach and vision with respect to teaching, research and development and training future health care professionals in the field of drugs and pharmaceuticals.
If we look back at the history of pharmacy profession or practice in India, we will have to go back to the year 1811 when Scotch M Bathgate opened a chemist shop in Kolkatta. This was probably the beginning of pharmacy practice in India. In 1824, the east India Company felt the need to train Indians for medical practice and establish medical colleges for their own interest. Though, at that time pharmacy practice was established in England, no initiative was taken to train Indians for effective pharmacy practice.
Subsequently, in the Bengal Municipal Act, 1884, a provision was made for having some qualifications to dispense medicine. As per the provision, a one-year course was introduced for training persons for dispensing medicine. In 1899, the compounder-training course was introduced in Chennai. In 1928, the State Medical Faculty of Bengal started a two-year course for training compounders.
In 1932, at Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Prof. Mahadeva Lal Schroff with his chemical technology back ground, urged Pt. M. M. Malviyaji to start a separate branch of Pharmaceutical Sciences at BHU. Pt. Malviyaji realized its importance and Schroff was given the green signal to organize this new discipline in India, for the first time Prof. Schroff introduced Pharmaceutical