Table of Contents
History of the profession of Pharmacy in India
- Pharmacy education in India at the certificate level, was started in 18/42 in Goa by the Portuguese. Formal training of the compounds was started in 1881 in Bengal and as a university level program in 1937 at the Banaras Hindu University (Varanasi). In Baghdad the first pharmacies or drug store, were established in 754.
- The revolution in the development of science and technology in post-world war-2 starter the change in pharmacy profession.
- Pharmacy being a health care profession, the independent government of India enacted ‘The Pharmacy Act’ to control the pharmacy profession as well as education, in 1948.
- Father of Pharmacy: ‘William Procter Jr.’ (American Pharmacist)
- Father of Indian Pharmacy: ‘Mahadev Lal Schroff’
- Traditionally pharmacy has been known as an art and science of making drug/medicine. The word Pharmacy is derived from the Greek word ‘PHARMAKON’ meaning drug.
- In the ancient period, the physician themselves practiced pharmacy and it is believed that Hippocrates, the great Greek physician, regard as father of Medicine, used to make his own prescription or at least, supervise their preparation.
- Apothecary is a historical name of a medicine professional who, formulates and dispense medicine to physicians and patients, now this role served by the pharmacist. The earliest pharmacies were known as Apothecary shops.
- Pharmacist play a role in, compounding most of the medicine needs of the people. Here the medicinal professional prepared and dispensed medicines to physicians and mixtures , ointments, pills, tincture, syrups, elixirs, powder etc. in their pharmacy, based on the prescriptions given by physicians.
- They packed them suitably labled them and dispensed them along with appropriate advise for consuming them.
- In old time, direct crude drugs are used in the diagnosis by the physicians and require herbs and drugs are provided by pharmacist. At that time drugs are identified by their morphological appearance and organoleptic characters.
- Like other, countries In India too, pharmacy was part of medicine in our Ayurvedic, and Siddha system of medical practice.
- Pharmacy is a versatile, dynamic ,growing and increasingly diverse professions, one which creates an excitement because there are so many opportunities for services. it is an old age profession which has transformed into a hub for ‘Global health Care’ and evolved as multidisciplinary and multifaceted field in recent times.
Pharmacy relation in Industry-
In industry pharmacist perform many works in many ways:
- Formulation development- Commercial drug production is a difficult tasks for any pharmaceutical companies. Due to involvement of pharmacy in pharmaceutical, it is easy way to developed commercial formulation and developing a complete understanding of the form and structure of the drug substance and drug products.
- Pharmacist also involved in the formulation testing and make a successful pharmaceutical formulation requires the combination of the Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) with inactive excipients.
- Physicochemical analysis can aid excipient selection, enable the stability of the drug substance and drug product to be assessed, and also ensure the critical material attributes (CMAs) relating to formulation performance are identified as part of the design space definition applied for downstream manufacturing controls.
- Manufacturing department- Proper equipment, proper procedure and suitable conditions are the necessary conditions for any manufacturing units. In pharmaceutical it is also decided by the pharmacist. Pharmacist developed and maintain Standard Operation Procedure (SOP) and provide effective training to products staffs.
- Proper sanitation and hygiene conditions are also developed by the pharmacist and it is also decided the safety area and safety environment for the manufacturing units.
- Assist and review production batch records have all the necessary information for final approval and release decision and also conduct and support companies research and development projects.
- Quality control and Quality assurance: The main function of quality control is to test and verify the products quality according to pharmacopoeia standards.
- In Quality Control sampling inspection and testing of raw material and packaging material, release and documentation are control by the high skilled person (Pharmacists). QC department also define the stability testing and evaluation of self-life product and also monitor the microbial activity of raw materials and finished products.
- Quality Assurance (QA) department execute the systemic monitoring and evaluation of the various expects of a project service or facility to ensure that standards of quality of the drugs. It also responsible of maintenance of a desired level of quality in as service or product, especially by means of a attention to ever stage of the process of delivery or production. It also assured the doses and formulations of drugs according to patients need and convenience.
- Drug Information: Pharmacists are also known as drug experts because it gains a lot of knowledge during the academic session. In industry it informed the drugs composition and formulation and also defined the drug advantage (useful effect) and disadvantage (Harmful or adverse effect).chemically drugs are active or inactive it is decided by the pharmacists and also provided the drugs reaction with other drugs.
- Drug are the chemical substances, which are design for treating the disease .It is also provide the complete information about suitable excepients ( coloring agent, flavouring agent etc).
- Regulatory affairs: In industry, regulatory affairs is a profession developed from the desire of governments to protect public health by controlling the safety and efficacy of medicinal products like veterinary medicines, medical devices, pesticides, agrochemicals, cosmetics and complementary medicines. Regulatory department responsible for the discovery, testing, manufacture and marketing of pharmaceutical products wanting to ensure that they supply products that are safe and make a worthwhile contribution to public health and welfare.
- Regulatory department promote strategic and technical advice at the highest level in their industries, making an important contribution both commercially and scientifically development.
- Keeping track of the ever-changing legislation in all the regions in which a company wishes to distribute its products and give advice on legal and scientific restraints and requirements.
- Sales and marketing: For any industry growth and development sales and marketing is a very important factor. Pharmaceutical marketing is presently the most organized and comprehensive information system for updating physicians about the availability, safety, efficacy, hazards, and techniques of using medicines.
- Marketing is a process that starts with identifying and understanding the needs and wants of the customer (demand) and then fulfilling those needs and wants (supply). An effective marketing plan offers a solution to fulfill the needs and wants of society (individuals and organizations), while achieving the goals of the organization.
- In addition, marketing can create new needs or reformat existing needs. Both customers (demand) and organizations (supply) have objectives.
- In marketing , pharmacists are direct attached to the patients and physicians so it provided the complete information about the public need and requirements.
- Management: Marketing management is the analysis, planning, an implementation of the control over actions, aimed on an establishment, fastening and support of favourable exchanges with target buyers for the achievement of certain problems of the organization, such, as profit reception, sales volume growth, increase market share, etc.