To the Editor. Recently, the Pharmacy Council of India (PCI) has proposed a plan to start a 5-year PharmD program in India. The PCI has selected 20 pharmacy institutions in India and submitted the proposal to the Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for their review and approval. The idea is to educate and train pharmacy students in India to meet the shortage of pharmacists in Indian hospitals and also to match the entry-level PharmD curriculum in the United States. The National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) new requirement that a foreign pharmacy graduate have 5 years of pharmacy education before applying to take the Foreign Pharmacy Graduate Equivalency Examination (FPGEE) in order to then take the North American Pharmacist Licensure Examination (NAPLEX) and finally obtain a license to practice pharmacy in the United States is the key reason for this change in pharmacy education in India.1-4 The movement towards a clinically oriented curriculum is already afoot and we believe more countries in the Indian subcontinent and around the world will soon follow the PCI decision.5 In fact, many pharmacy institutions in India, like Jadavpur University have started offering a master of science (MS) course in clinical pharmacy to expand upon the basic pharmaceutical courses in the 4-year curriculum. Dr. Dutta, a Jadavpur University alum, was invited to his alma mater to provide a workshop for the faculty in teaching clinical courses to pharmacy students. We believe that students with advanced training in clinical courses meet the 5-year pharmacy requirement for taking the FPGE. Currently, Jadavpur University is identifying us universities to establish collaborative faculty and student exchange programs in pharmacy whereby faculty members from both institutions can visit the host institution to gain valuable experience in teaching and research. Jamia Hamdard (Hamdard University), Dr Ghilzai's alma mater, has also started an MS course in pharmacy practice at the Faculty of Pharmacy. The course is sponsored by Faculty of Pharmacy with Hamdard's Hospital and will be of 2 years duration, out of which 2 semesters will cover course work and another 2 semesters will be devoted to a research project and practice experiences to be undertaken in the Hospital. The new course has been established in Hamdard Hospital and the facility of Drug Information Services, which also publishes a bimonthly newsletter on the current drug information, has already been developed. Besides pharmacy faculty members, 2 clinicians from Hamdard's Hospital are associated with this course.
We really appreciate the PCI decision, which came after a visit by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) delegation to India to meet with the PCI. Although this bold decision came very late, it is a positive step in the right direction to popularize pharmacy education and to graduate skilled and knowledgeable pharmacist who can work in clinical settings and counsel and manage drug therapy and improve patient's health care.
Until now, Indian pharmacy graduates have been mainly trained to work in the pharmaceutical industry as product and formulation scientists. Pharmacy education in India has mainly focused on pharmaceutical sciences courses, while clinical or pharmacotherapeutic courses have received far less coverage in the curriculum and no students have ever undergone pharmacy practice experiences. According to one article, there are over 600 pharmacy colleges and schools in India producing over 13,000 pharmacy graduates yearly.
In the last few years, the issue was hotly debated and discussed throughout India to get a consensus to revamp the pharmacy curriculum. It is suggested that the new pharmacy curriculum will entail courses in pharmacogenomics and biotechnology and a significant portion of the curriculum will focus on pathphysiology, pharmcotherpaeutics, and practice experiences.
The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) is a statutory regulatory body for technical education in the country that had been limited to overseeing technical education. However, in 2003, the AICTE announced that it will constitute a National Engineers Registration and Licensing Board (NERLB) to provide registration and licenses for practice of engineering in India. We would suggest that the PCI should work in close association with the AICTE to introduce and mandate a similar national board examination for pharmacy graduates to qualify to practice pharmacy in India.
We have contributed twice here in the past to raise the issue of pharmacy education in India and in those letters we suggested that pharmacy education in India needed to be more clinically oriented. We personally appreciate the PCI's decision to explore and involve an international accreditation agency and also congratulate the ACPE for supporting the PCI.
We would like to thank AJPE for promoting the cause of pharmacy education in foreign countries. Many foreign pharmacy graduates are employed as pharmacy educators in US colleges and schools of pharmacy. Also, foreign pharmacy graduates constitute a large and growing number of the total pharmacist workforce in some US states.
Naushad M. Khan Ghilzai, PhD
LECOM School of Pharmacy
Arjun P. Dutta, PhD
School of Pharmacy Pacific University
REFERENCES
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