The President of 71st Indian Pharmaceutical Congress (IPC), Ravi Uday Bhaskar released the brochure of 71st IPC at the curtain raiser ceremony in Chennai. The theme for this year’s Congress is “Healthcare System- Responsibilities of Regulators and Pharma Industry”, which will be held at Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research, Chennai from December 20-22, 2019.
Dhilip Kumar M, Secretary- Local Organising Committee (LOC), 71st IPC, welcomed the delegates and Dr Jayanta Choudhury, president AIDCOC felicitated Ravi Uday Bhaskar, President, IPCA. Besides felicitating the Chairman of the LOC, Dr Vijayaraghavan, he also extended his gratitude to other key dignitaries with floral greetings.
This year, the All India Drugs Control Officers’ Confederation (AIDCOC) is hosting the Congress.
The day also witnessed second Indian Pharmaceutical Congress Association (IPCA) meeting of 71st Indian Pharmaceutical Congress (IPC). Members of LOC, along with the Indian Pharmaceutical Congress Association (IPCA), congregated to discuss the functional strategies of the 71st IPC.
Procedures of the meeting began with a welcome address by Dr T V Narayana, General Secretary, IPCA who thanked all the participants of the meeting. In his address, he updated the attendees about the first IPCA meeting, which was held in Mumbai at Sun Pharma House.
Narayana also informed that Ravi Uday Bhaskar, Director General, Pharmexcil and Secretary General, AIDCOC has been elected as a President of IPCA 2019, and he has taken over from Dilip Shanghvi, Managing Director, Sun Pharma.
Addressing the meeting, Ravi Uday Bhaskar, President, IPCA and Director General, Pharmexcil expressed his concerns over the format of existing IPC. His talk deliberated on various topics associated with the monotonous format of IPC. Recalling the IPC legacy before local and international trade exhibitions ventured into the Indian market, he mentioned that earlier IPC had maintained the merits and its respect in the industry, academia and all other areas of pharmacy were well appreciated. He also pointed out the IPC’s contribution for the development of the pharmacy profession in India. Commenting on the present scenario, he mentioned that the congress’s focus is on generating more number of participants than the value offered.
Further, he stressed on the need to change the format of the existing congress and also expressed his opinion that if it is required, the council should not continue with exhibition model, as it is a burden to IPC rather than value addition. He requested all the members to introspect and suggest value addition to the congress.
In his summing up, he also suggested that the council should consider taking external expert’s assistance who will help them in brainstorming sessions and support the council in designing the new model of conduct of IPC.
During the brainstorming session, participants of the IPCA meeting unanimously agreed to have an external experts intervention and few members also suggested not to have IPC every year. The discussion also emphasised on keeping the student community in consideration while initiating a change in the existing IPC model. Experts, who were part of the meeting, also suggested that committee members can also present white papers of their focussed research areas.
The meeting also witnessed members’ concerns over resolutions which were made during the past IPCs and implications on its implementations. To this, the council members also stressed ‘to a point that the responsible committee should have a mechanism or form a sub-committee to discuss about the progress of resolutions with the respective government bodies.
In the course of meeting, the Council decided to have memorial lectures in the name of Diptish Chakravorty who was Secretary of IPCA for more than three decades and Dr B D Miglani, who was the Founder Secretary of Indian Hospital Pharmacists’ Association (IHPA)
In the remembrance of women drug inspector, Dr Neha Shoree who was shot dead at the Drug and Chemical Testing Laboratory, Kharar near Chandigarh in April this year, the Council in principle agreed to instituted an award which will be honoured to women regulators.
Lastly, Dr Arun Garg, Joint Secretary, IPCA presented the vote of thanks.
u.sharma@expressindia.com