Fixing pharma education
The pharmaceutical industry used to be considered recession proof as compared to other sectors, but that myth has been roundly busted. India’s pharma peers thought they were in a sweet spot thanks to outsourcing of manufacturing and research and for some time, that was the case but as 2012 draws to a close, India’s pharma industry is also showing some troubling signs.
Consider this: the Naukri Job Speak index based on job listings added to the Naukri.com site every month, showed that hiring activity in the pharma sector dipped for three months in a row, with September hires dipping a further six per cent from the previous month.
Its true that the second half of the year generally does not see too much hiring, with major recruitment reserved for the first half of the year. Indeed, pharma recruitments had been upbeat for the sector with in the early 2012, but that makes the dip all that deeper: hiring in September 2012 is 10 per cent lower than in February.
So what’s wrong? Besides macro-economic factors like a slow down of exports to the EU as the Eurozone crisis deepens, coupled with the slow but steady erosion of profit margins as we compete with lower cost nations, we have to also look for reasons which are nearer home.
India does offers a value proposition for global pharma and a large part of that is not just the cost arbitrage but also the talent. But how deep is our talent pool? Are our academia in sync with what industry needs? And can they anticipate what industry will need tomorrow?
As we put together our annual special issue for the 64th Indian Pharmaceutical Congress, we asked some of the most respected academia to take stock of pharma education in the country and more importantly suggest solutions to fix the gaps. We hope these issues will not just be discussed during IPC but that the organising host, the Association of Pharmaceutical Teachers of India, will be the change agent and press for a transformative change.
Viveka Roychowdhury
Editor
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