PHARMA LITERATI

Dear All, Mr. Arun Jaitley, honorable finance minister during his budget today on 28th February 2015 announced the creation of three new "National Institutes of Pharmaceutical Education & Research (NIPER)" in three states namely Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. A welcome initiative or dilution of the NIPER brand. Request your thoughts. Send your thoughts to pharmaliterati@gmail.com We would publish the same on the blog.

Dear All, Every week of thousands of patent applications are published in India. The patent applications filed by the pharma academic research institutes in India go un-noticed.   We publish a list of Indian applications published related to pharma academics. This would provide us an idea about the kind of academic research being carried out in these institutes.   For details of these patents, please write back to us at pharmaliterati@gmail.com   Indian patent applications published on 27th February 2015 Invention Application No Inventors Institute Media for in vitro dissolution testing of polysaccharide based colon targeted formulations and method thereof 2485/DEL/2013 A 1) Goud Niranjan Kotla 2) Gulati Monica 3) Singh Sachin Kumar 4) Basotra Mohit 5) Chaudhary Yashwant Lovely Professional University (LPU), Phagwara, Punjab Nanosil...

Image from: http://www.badgeunlock.com/2011/02/foursquare-badge-century-club / Dear All, Greetings for the day. It is a pleasure to inform you that we have crossed the 100 subscribers' milestone today. If you can see on the feed-count tab today, we have got 100 subscribers.   We are very thankful to all of you for your support and wishes throughout the journey. The blog is surely serving the pharma community with some unique offerings of information and updates.   In the mean time, our back-end team is working to reach the maximum students, faculties and industry professionals. Many of you must have received the subscription request from our team. Now we have got subscribers from across the country and some of the who's who of the Indian pharma academics have joined us as subscribers. We also request the faculties to share the blog contents with their students as they would be equally benefited from the effort.   We would be coming with some novel id...

Today's Mint has report on malpractices in Indian healthcare sector. A must read for everyone who is bothered about the healthcare practices and pharmaceutical industry. Please visit: http://www.livemint.com/Politics/ryfCYbvT6wZfrape4Nq1AJ/Report-highlights-malpractice-in-Indian-healthcare-sector.html Irrational prescriptions, bribes for referrals and unnecessary investigations are the most common forms of corruption in India’s health sector, the British Medical Journal ( BMJ ) reported.   BMJ also addresses the complete lack of regulation of private players. Health is one of the least transparent and worst regulated sectors in India. A 2005 study by Transparency International concluded that the Indian healthcare sector is the second most corrupt sector , after the police.   Corruption, kickbacks and the nexus between doctors and pharmaceutical firms are so rampant that BMJ, in June 2014, launched a campaign called Corruption in Medicine, specific to India, ...

Directorate of Technical Education, Maharashtra State announced the dates for the Common Entrance Test for Admission to First Year of M. Pharmacy and B. Pharmacy. The dates are as follows:   Program CET Date of Online CET Master of Pharmacy (M. Pharm.) MAH-MPH-CET 2015 Sunday, 17 th May 2015 Degree in Pharmacy (B. Pharm.) MT-CET 2015 Saturday, 25 th April 2015 & Sunday, 26 th April, 2015. The detailed notification will be published on the official website and in leading newspapers shortly. For details visit: http://fileserver.mkcl.org/approvedinstitues/OasisModules_Files/Files/336.pdf?did=715        

Subhadra Dravida, Founder and CEO of Tran-Scell Biologics& TranSTox BioApplications India and Prabhat Arya, Department of Organic and Medicinal Chemistry Dr. Reddy's Institute of Life Sciences (DRILS) University of Hyderabad Campus India write about the rethinking drug discovery. For full article, please visit: http://www.pharmafocusasia.com/research-developement/rethinking-drug-discovery     Drug discovery is a tough business! At the same time, it is the domain that provides an opportunity to improve the quality of human health and allows recovering from the suffering due to various biological disorders. In the past decades, we have witnessed a major limitation in creating the next-generation drugs despite a significant boost in the financial spending for research and development.   Summary As we have seen for the past several years, the current practice of drug discovery seems to be a losing battle and not much has come out to benefit the society th...

Narendra Kumar, Assistant Professor Department of Pharmaceutical Analysis National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education& Research Hyderabad, India writes about the application of Quality by design (QbD) principles to the development of analytical methods.   For the full articles, please visit: http://www.pharmafocusasia.com/information-technology/quality-design   Summary: The article highlights the application of Quality by Design principles to the analytical (HPLC) method development process. A marriage of HPLC with QbD is suggested for rapid and robust method development, understanding factors influencing chromatography, easier transfer of the method through proper documentation. The use of various modelling software programmes allowed a limited amount of experimental data to be used to examine a large number of probable run conditions. Once the optimum run conditions and their tolerance to change were predicted, experiments were run to confirm the predict...

Today's Indian Express carries an interview of Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Chairman and Managing Director of Biocon, India’s largest Biopharmaceuticals company.   http://www.newindianexpress.com/education/edex/Biotech-Could-Take-India-Ahead/2015/02/23/article2678039.ece   The excerpts: What’s the value and scope of Biotechnology studies and research in India or are there better prospects abroad? If India can successfully tackle the gaps in infrastructure and challenges in the policy and funding domains, the country has a huge potential to become the leading global innovation hub for biotech.   Today, the essence of Biotechnology is most prominent in Genetic Research and Drug Designing. However, it is effectively being used for conservation of natural resources and developing newer sources of alternative energy, as well.   Which field of study (Genetic, Agricultural or Industrial) is gaining prominence? Genetic Engineering has applications in Pharmace...

H. R. Patel Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research is organizing one-day national seminar on  "Innovative concepts and methodologies in Pharmaceutical Research."   This  would be followed by Inauguration of Nanotech Unit and a research award competition for undergraduate students. The details are as follows: Theme:               Innovative concepts and methodologies in Pharmaceutical Research . Dates:                 4th March 2015. Organized by:     H. R. Patel Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research .   Location:              Shirpur (Maharashtra). Details available at: http://www.hrpatelpharmacy.co.in/download/pharmvention/national%20seminar%20and%20pharmvention%202015.pdf

Ahmedabad Mirror reports the fate of technical education in Gujarat.   Two MBA institutes and two pharmacy colleges offering degree courses have applied for shutting down. Three MBA schools and a pharmacy college have applied for reduction in seats, citing less than adequate number of students. "None of the applications is from institutes in Ahmedabad. The colleges that have sent us applications are mostly from rural areas like Modasa, Matar, Mehsana and Kutch , to mention a few. Students do not opt for colleges in remote areas as many do not have adequate infrastructure, teachers and other facilities," said an official at GTU requesting anonymity.   Despite housing 40 per cent of pharmaceutical industries from India, students clearing BPharm and MPharm do not find lucrative jobs. Head of the department at LJ Institute of Pharmacy, Sheeraj Shah, said that the location of the institute also plays a crucial role. "Institutes in big cities will not find problem ...

C. Michael White, Pharm.D., Professor and Head, Department of Pharmacy Practice, University of Connecticut explores the generic medicines practice in the recent interview in The Huffington Post.   There has been a lot of debate about the use of generic drugs vs. brand names. Are generics really as effective? It pays to be informed since, according to the FDA, “nearly 8 in 10 prescriptions filled in the United States are for generic drugs. The use of generic drugs is expected to grow over the next few years as a number of popular drugs come off patent through 2015.”   The excerpts :   Q: Why are brand names so much more expensive than generics? Unlike the generic manufacturer, the original pharmaceutical company has to pay for more than just the actual production of that medication. The Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development estimates that the cost to develop and win marketing approval for a new drug is $2.6 billion.   Q: What hap...

    The discovery of a new antibiotic called Teixobactin was announced by international team of researchers, in January this year. It is the most significant new antibiotic to be discovered in more than 30 years, and it may help combat the growing number of drug-resistant bacteria.   However, there are reasons why the discovery of this “game-changing” antibiotic is far more significant than the media has generally portrayed.   The first is because it was isolated from a bacterium that was previously unculturable . Bacterial chemistry and metabolism is so diverse, flexible and complex that their vital growth factors are often totally unknown. So, until now, it has been impossible to grow colonies of most of them in the lab for experimentation.   The startling situation is that microbiologists tell us that most bacteria – an estimated 99% – are currently regarded as unculturable. Thus this discovery opens the door, even if only a chink, to a va...

Dear All, Every week of thousands of patent applications are published in India. The patent applications filed by the pharma academic research institutes in India go un-noticed.   We publish a list of Indian applications published related to pharma academics. This would provide us an idea about the kind of academic research being carried out in these institutes.   For details of these patents, please write back to us at pharmaliterati@gmail.com   Indian patent applications published on 20th February 2015 Invention Application No Inventors Institute Composition comprising herbal extract of Jatropha Integerrima Jacq and uses thereof 2398/DEL/2013 A 1) Prof. Surendra Kumar Sharma 2) Harneet Singh Guru Jambheshwar University of Science and Technology, Hisar Rivastigmine and Quercetin conjugate form for treatment of alzheimer's disease ...

L M College Of Pharmacy is organizing three-days national seminar and Workshop on  "New Horizons in Drug Design." This is broadly medicinal chemistry based interactive seminar for M. Pharm./Ph.D. students and faculty members who have zeal to know the essentials of structure-based and ligand-based drug design.   The key features include, - Interactive talks on Drug Design by renowned speakers - Hands on training on Schrodinger Suite The details are as follows: Theme:               New Horizons in Drug Design . Dates:                 1st to 3rd March 2015. Organized by:     L M College Of Pharmacy .   Location:              Ahmedabad. Details available at: http://lmcp.in/yahoo_site_admin/assets/docs/NEW_HORIZONS_IN_DRUG_DESIGN.34180224...

Uka Tarsadia University's Maliba Pharmacy College is organizing Festive De Pharma, a pharmacy festival which includes competitions on, - Poster competition - Oral presentation - Pharma modelling - Bookees - Case studies - Pharma Marketing - Debate and - Scitoons. The details are as follows: Theme:               Festive De Pharma . Dates:                 10th March 2015. Organized by:     Maliba Pharmacy College, Uka Tarsadia University. Location:              Bardoli, Gujarat. Details available at: http://utu.ac.in/festivedepharma/  

Today's economic times reports about the current issues related to swine flu drugs and the problems therein. Drug makers in India have blamed an "archaic" health ministry regulation for the shortage of medicines used for treating swine flu, saying they had to destroy stockpiles of the drugs because chemists were reluctant to procure them. More than 600 people have died of the disease across the country in the past two months. Many patients, even in bigger cities like Delhi, have complained of lack of swine flu medicines at drug stores and hospitals . "Since the drug comes under Schedule X, there are various licences required to stock the medicines, which dissuades chemists to stock them," said an executive at Mumbai-based Cipla, which manufactures swine flu drug under the brand name Anti Flu. "And, if chemists are seen selling swine flu drugs without adequate licences, they immediately face prosecution." Schedule X classifies "r...

Kavita Khanna, the International Director, Bharat Serum and Vaccines writes about the pharma industry and  NDA Government’s hallmark ‘Make in India’ programme in Business Line.   The existing three-tier review system for obtaining product approval should be simplified as in US and Europe.   The NDA Government’s hallmark ‘Make in India’ programme can potentially be a game-changer in fulfilling Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dream of transforming the currently anaemic $2 trillion economy into a $20 trillion power house.   Achieving this vision would necessitate a sustained, year-on-year growth of 9 per cent going forward. The pharmaceuticals and biotechnology sectors can play a significant role in this growth story if the government institutes a single-window clearance system for regulatory licenses.   The growth targets set for India’s healthcare sector are nothing new. The drivers of this growth – low-cost labour, technical skills and sci...

Dear All, Every week of thousands of patent applications are published in India. The patent applications filed by the academic research institutes in India go un-noticed.   We publish a list of Indian applications published related to pharma academics. This would provide us an idea about the kind of academic research being carried out in these institutes.   For details of these patents, please write back to us at pharmaliterati@gmail.com   Indian patent applications published on 13th February 2015 Invention Application No Inventors Institute Aerosol formulation for the treatment of arthritis 1864/CHE/2012 A 1) Dr. Rajasekaran Aiyalu 2) Dr. Arulkumaran Govindarajan 3) Mr. Arivukkarasu Ramasamy 4) Mr. Ithayaventhan Subramaniam 5) Dr. Subramaniam Thayappan KMCH College of Pharmacy, Coimbatore Synthesis and anti inflammatory activity of...