30th Annual Conference of IPGA held in New Delhi

Attended by more than 700 delegates from across the country

The 30th Annual Conference of Indian Pharmacy Graduates’ Association was recently held in New Delhi. The conference was presided over by Atul K Nasa, President of Indian Pharmacy Graduates ‘Association (IPGA) and was inaugurated by Dr GN Singh DCG(I), which was attended by more than 700 delegates from across the country.

Dr GN Singh called upon the pharma industry to take advantage of the opportunities being created by the government through the scheme of ‘Make in India’, by investing in making medical devices indigenously. At present there is a big and growing market for medical devices in India but it is importing about 90 per cent of its consumption of medical devices. There is a big opportunity for the pharma sector to make medical devices not only for our consumption but to look for export as well so that India can dominate in this field as well, he said.

Singh added, “India, at present, is at the fourth position by volume and at the ninth place by value of the total sales of medicines of the world. India is producing medicines worth about Rs 15,000 crores by over 8,000 pharmaceutical plants and is exporting to more than 210 countries. India is the largest producer and exporters of vaccines and is supplying vaccines to WHO also for their vaccination programmes in developing countries.

BR Sikri, Managing Director, ABS Mercantile, said that it is a proud moment for pharma industries as every third tablet being used world over is being manufactured in India but at the same time 80 per cent of the materials required in this regard are being imported from China. He emphasised the need to make them indigenously and reduce the dependency on one country for these products.

Dr Mrinalini Darswal, Food Safety Commissioner & Drugs Controller, Delhi, who was also the guest of honour, graced the occasion and congratulated the association for choosing the theme of the conference on digitalisation and said that this technology could provide better service to public. Dr B Suresh, President, Pharmacy Council of India (PCI) delivered the key note address and presented his views on digitalisation of pharmaceutical services. Other dignitaries who graced the occasion were Dr SS Aggarwal, Vice chancellor of Delhi Pharmaceutical Sciences & Research University, and PK Datta, Managing Director, Systopic Labs.

A job fair was also organised for the first time during this conference where more than 100 candidates were interviewed by seven pharma companies and around 30 candidates were shortlisted for the job.

IPGA felicitated Singh for being elected as the President of 67th Indian Pharmaceutical Congress and Dr SS Agrawal on being appointed as the first Vice Chancellor of Delhi Pharmaceutical Sciences and Research University.

Atul Kumar Nasa, President, IPGA was honoured with IPGA Professional Excellence Award. IPGA Life Time Achievements Awards were given to PP Sharma for 2014 and to Bhanu Dua for 2015. IPGA Promising Pharmacist award was conferred to Pradeep Kumar. These awards are given by IPGA every year for the exemplary services given to pharmacy profession to their members. The newly constituted IPGA best state branch award was given to Bihar State branch and IPGA best local chapter award was given to Mathura Chapter. IPGA honours the first three toppers of GPAT every year and this year the awards were given to Ashish Girdhar, Jojo Joseph and Rajat Mahajan.

The IPGA fellowship Awards for 2015 were bestowed to Dr Bhagirath Patel from Gujarat, Dr MN Rao Gupta of Andhra Pradesh, Binod Kumar from Bihar and N Udupa of Manipal.

During the scientific session, various eminent speakers from all across the country delivered their highly informative and interactive talks on the theme ‘Role of Pharmacists in Digital Era.’ They stressed the importance of digitalisation in various activities of pharma science such as research and development, production, pharmacy practice and patient care.

The vote of thanks was given by Dr Arun Garg, General Secretary, IPGA.

EP News Bureau – Mumbai