Changing Pharma Education in India: Join BII Pharma Programs for the New Paradigm of Pharmacy Profession in India

Due to the mushrooming of the pharmacy institutions, quality pharmacy education has faltered. As a result various institutions are finding it difficult to fill the approved quota of seats. Many institutions have a scant regard for maintaining education standards.

Pharmacy education in India had its beginning in mid of 19th century in Madras Medical College with introduction of pharmacy classes to impart pharmaceutical skills for the students qualifying for medical degrees or diploma or hospital assistance ship. Later it was helpful for the students who intended to qualify as chemist and druggists. Duration of study was increased to two years and entry qualification was made matriculation. The classes didn’t receive popularity and there were only a few students who used to opt for it. However, the course remained in operation and received Government sanction for its continuation. But the pharmacy education gained popularity only when Prof. M. L. Schroff with the consent of Madan Mohan Malviya introduced Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Pharmacognosy as one of the subjects for B.Sc. Degree in July 1937 in Banaras Hindu University. Then onwards there was no looking back. Pharmacy became a full pledged course with introduction of Diploma in Pharmacy and Bachelors of Pharmacy. Later Master of Pharmacy in various specializations was introduced. It is said that the first ever Pharmacy course was introduced along with the medical course in 1842 at the Old Portuguese school known as "Escola Medica de Goa" and later named as "Escola Medica Cirurgica de Goa". The Pharmacists (farmaceuticos) and Doctors (Medica Cirurgiao) were educated and trained in the same medical school and they had almost the same status in the Goan society.

Pharmacy education played a very crucial role in the economic development of the country. Now Pharmaceutical Sector is considered to be one of the very important sectors which significantly contribute to country’s economy. Although the pharmacy education has its enormous contribution for the development of pharma industry, its contribution for the development of pharmacy practice was modest with just a Masters programme in Pharmacy Practice. Hence, it was decided that there is a need to start a full-pledged course which would impart sufficient knowledge to student to practice the profession of pharmacy. And then the birth of Pharm D in India took place with the untiring efforts of a few visionaries. Doctor of pharmacy is patient-oriented whereas, bachelors of pharmacy is industry — oriented. The students are shaping to enter with pride and knowledge to take up the challenges of patient care.

In general, there should be a re-look at the pharmacy courses. Diploma in Pharmacy course, as a prerequisite to run a pharmacy (medical shop), is said to be outdated and only a few students opt for the course. Bachelor in Pharmacy needs an update to adapt to the advanced technology at which pharmaceutical industry is operating. Although been criticized, there should be a second thought to be given to introduce specialization at bachelor’s level. There should be an amalgamation of a few specializations at post graduate level as there are various offshoot specializations, which have come up in recent past for just commercial purposes. Instead there should be an initiation of courses in Pharmaceutical Management, Intellectual Property Right, Regulatory Affairs, Pharmacoeconomics, Pharmacovigilance, Clinical trial data management and Nanopharmaceuticals.

There should be self-regulation by pharmacy teachers. Being in very pious profession, they should update themselves with recent happenings and maintain high professional standards. They should enthuse students to take up challenges of the industry and profession of pharmacy.

Future strategies for pharmaceutical education

Curriculum design and reorganisation of the degree programme requires a ‘visionary’ approach. We should try to imagine, what is most likely to be happening in about 10 to 15 years in the future at any point of time. It is necessary to prepare the student for tackling problems and situations of the future rather than for the current state. Present will be outdated very quickly. The state-of-the-art is not a static state but is very much dynamic. The concept of the state-of-the-art itself implies a parallel and constant change in our endeavour to keep pace with the rapid changes taking place in technology, basic sciences and information. A student needs the past and present states-of-art only as basis for his future states. Attempts to do this sublime approach of jumping to the future from the past without going through the present have not yielded satisfactory outcomes. Students and the educators tended to see the ‘present’ more clearly than visualise the future possibilities. Skepticism has always been responsible in delaying progress. We exist in a social and educational system that has limited vision and consequently limited goals of achievement. Our attention and focus have been distorted by the numbers of students involved rather than the quality of education. Every student has to necessarily learn many new concepts and skills just to be able to remain in the profession of the future. We should prepare students with the right skills to learn new states-of-the-art with less effort! Nobody can visualise the entire future and design a strategy suited for that. But we could concentrate on incorporating the mental skills in the educational activities that are more permanent and provide the student a capability for learning new concepts.

Strategy in education should shift to ‘concept’ approach from the present ‘content’ approach. All content should be chosen to demonstrate and strengthen a ‘concept’ with an objective that is basic to the topic. The approach should reflect in curriculum design, its implementation and evaluation areas of education. All evaluation methods like written, oral, practical, assignments, seminars, projects, discussions etc. should be concept oriented. A student will benefit most with orientation of educational process to such mental skills like observation, analysis, correlation, application, evaluation or judgement etc. Such a system will go a long way to lessen the effort required by the students to acquire such skills all by themselves.

New England Launches New Line of Proteomics Services

New England Peptide (NEP) introduced NEPTuneTM, a new Propriety line of custom proteomics reagents to help its customers to quickly and inexpensively maximize biomarker assay development and produce consistent result.

“Proteomics is an exciting research field that is poised to deliver the next generation of life- changing diagnosis tools and drug therapies diagnostics tools and drug therapies,” said Dave Robinson, NEP’s Executive Officer. “We have great interest in proteomic research and are pleased to be the only company providing this high quality, proprietary line of services to our customers. It marks a revolutionary step forward for NEP and the field of proteomics as a whole.” Proteomics is the large scale study of the set of proteins specified by genes within an organism with the aim to understand how biological systems operate on a fundamental level. Proteomics based (human) diagnostics and resultant therapies have the potential to allow physician treat disease states in a more specific and targeted approach, which will help deliver on the promise of personalized medicine and tailored therapies that have been discussed in the health care industry in recent years.

The NEPTuneTM line comprises a suite of four distinct solutions that align with the various needs of proteomics researcher and clinician, ranging from biomarker discovery through clinical assay production:

• NEPTuneTM Assay Discovery Peptides- NEP’s technology allows customers to quickly and less inexpensively increase the number of peptides they screen, enabling them to more efficiently reach their research goals.
• NEPTuneTM Assay Verification Peptides-Since proteomics verification is a critical stage in the development of a viable biomarker assay, NEP offers peptide and antibody reagents tailored to complement this phase of the proteomics project lifecycle.
• NEPTuneTM Assay Refinement Peptides- The culmination of rigorous discovery and verification studies has its own unique set of needs, which are met by NEP’s assay refinement solution.
• NEPTuneTM Clinical Assay Peptides – NEP already supports many ongoing clinical assays around the world with its reagents.

Robinson noted that NEP has been a leader in proteomics research for years has assembled a team – led by Chemical Development Vice President Robert Hammer, PhD and Proteomics Product Manager John Antogoni with consultation from NEP’s industry-leading scientific advisory board – that delivers the industry’s only single source of peptides optimized for quantitative proteomics.

NEPTuneTM is the latest in a line of proprietary product and process innovations developed by NEP’s in-house team. Last December, NEP launched PepScale TM, a proprietary peptide synthesis instrument, that better anables peptide scale-up and process development projects for its customers. In September, NEP rolled out PepCROTM, the first peptide –focused contract research service for drug, vaccine and diagnostic discovery projects. Last July, NEP unveiled FlashPureTM, the peptide industry’s first flash purification system.

Gentel Launches Detection Kit for Ultra-sensitive Chromogenic Detection of Protein
Microarrays

Gentel Biosciences, announced the availability of the APiX ViewTM Detection Kits for ultra- sensitive chromogenic detection of protein bmicroarrays, including reverse phase protein such as SomaPlexTM arrays from Protein Biotechnologies.

APiX chromogenic technology allows for the detection of any biotinylated molecule, generating light grey-to-black spots that are visible to the naked eye and can be scanned with the Gentel Proteomics Multi-System. APiX is also compatible with a variety of secondary antibodies such as anti-mouse anti-rabit. APiX uses a proprietary gold-catalyzed silver deposition and typically achieves measurably improved sensitivity compared to fluorescence
detection.

Phillip Schwartz, President and CEO of Protein biotechnologies recognized the potential of the Gentel reagent and systen for use with Protein Biotechnologies SomaPlexTM tumor lysate arrays. "Our customers are looking for a simple, sensitive, and affordable detection methods for use with SomaPlexTM arrays. The Gentel Prteomics Multisystem meets this need," stated Schwartz. "We are excited about how Gentel's easy-to-use kits and affordable
system can help make arrays accessible to whole a new group of users."

Tumor lysates arrays are a type of reverse phase protein microarray that contains a collection of up to several hundred tumor samples on slide. Antibodies or other probes are applied to the array to detect the abundance of specific protein biomarkers and rapidly measure expression across a large population of tumor samples. Array results are then compared to demographic and relevant clinical disease-specific data on the tumor collection to draw a conclusion. APiX bView detection reagents are compatible with the Gentel Proteomics Multi-System, which provides "scan-to-analysis" functionality for multiplex immunoassays, tumor lysates and antigen arrays as well as Western Blot, ELISA and tissue imaging.

Molecular "Robot" Made out of DNA to Start, Move, Turn, and Stop While Following A
DNA Track

A team of scientists from Columbia University, Arizona State University, the University of MIchigan, and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have programmed an autonomous molecular "robot" made out of DNA to start, move, turn, and stop while following a DNA track.

The development could ultimately lead to molecular systems that might one day be used for medical therapeutic devices and molecular-scale reconfigurable robots-robots made of many simple units that can reposition or even rebuild themselves to accomplish different tasks. A paper describing the work appears in the current issue of the journal Nature.

The traditional view of a robot is that it is "a machine that senses its environment, makes a descision, and then does something- it acts," says Erik Winfree, associate Professor of coumputer science, computation and neural systems, and bioengineering at Caltech.

Milan N. Stojanovic, faculty member in the Division of Experimental Therapeutics at Columbia University, led the project and teamed up with Winfree and Hao Yan, Professor of chemistry and an expert in DNA nanotechnology, and with Nils G. Walter, professor of chemistry and director of the single Molecule Analysis in Real- Time (SMART) Canter at University of Machigan in Ann Arbor, for what became a modern-day self-assembly of like- minded scientists with the complementarty areas of expertise needed to tackle a tough problem.

"Indian researchers develops nano version of a cancer drug"

For the first time, a nano version of carboplatin, used in chemotherapy treatment has been developed, wherein unlike the existing molecule, a higher concentration of the drug will attack the cancerous cells and increase the chances of survival of a patient.

A group of five Indian researchers and doctors from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Mumbai; LV Prasad Eye Institute, Apollo Hospitals, Hyderabad; and Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai; has researched and developed a nano version of an existing cancer drug, carboplatin. This will reach the cancerous cells at a faster pace, reduce toxicity levels of the chemotherapy drug and further increase chances of survival of the patient. Carboplatin is a chemotherapy drug used against some forms of cancer, especially against cancers affecting brain and central nervous system. If this nano drug is proved successful in human trials, this would be the first nano version of a carboplatin drug in the world.

Dr Debraj Shome, Facial Cancer Expert from Apollo Hospitals, Hyderabad, India, and who heads the five-member research team, said, “We realized that in many cases, large molecule carboplatin drugs could not penetrate and reach the cells in the eyes and the brain. We then thought why not come out with a nano version of this same drug which would be an answer to many shortcomings. Due to the reduced size of the drug it would not be difficult for the molecules to penetrate through the pores of the outer portion of the eye and directly target the cancerous cells.” This was proven through an experiment conducted on rats, one eye of the rat was injected with normal size of carboplatin while the other eye was treated with the nano size of the drug. Chances of toxicity were also shown to be very minimal. “Toxicity levels in the normal carboplatin drug are not an issue as the drug is traditionally been reasonably safe to neural tissue,” added Dr Shome.

The nano version of the drug enters cells upto as much as 75 percent more than the normal generic version of the drug. Moreover, the common problem faced by cancer patients undergoing a chemotherapy treatment was that, an overdose of the existing drug had high chances of killing the healthy cells along with the cancerous ones. As this nano drug will enter more efficiently, lesser amounts of the drug can be used and collateral damage of normal human tissue could be avoided.

This nano drug will mainly target children below the age of two years who are suffering from retinoblastoma (eye cancer) and children and young adults suffering from other round cell tumors. This could be a blessing in disguise for this target group, around 50 percent of whom die not just because of the disease but because of chemotherapy overdose itself. For human trials, the first step was to test 150-200 patients with peri-ocular injections of the normal drug, after which the next step was the animal experiment to develop the nano drug. Subsequently, the step was to test the nano drug on humans. Till date around 5-7 patients with retinoblastoma have already been treated with this nano drug.

While experiments in rats were completed last year, human trials of the nano drug has commenced a few months earlier. This trial has being accepted for publication in the peer-reviewed US-based ophthalmology research journal Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences.

Nanobiotechnology, has been creating waves in the industry. At present a number of Indian pharma and biotech players are working on applications of nanomedicine in the treatment of a number diseases, cancer being the top most in their list. Biocon and Abraxis BioScience recently launched Abraxane the nanotechnology-based anticancer drug in India for the treatment of breast cancer. Dabur Pharma, a leading manufacturer of anti-cancer drugs, had also launched nanoxel the novel drug delivery system for the widely used anti-cancer drug Paclitaxel. The nanoscale drug delivery system is claimed to be India's first indigenously developed nanotechnology-based chemotherapy agent. Pune-based Tata Chemicals Limited (TCL) is also working on nanotech-based products though they were reluctant to reveal details.

The research team has decided not to hand over the patent to any pharmaceutical company as of now and prefers to work on an independent basis especially in the basic research and development phase. They have filed a patent and typically they would spin off into a different company.

"Genomics promise faster diagnosis of critical infections"

At the plenary session, Innovative Diagnosis, held as part of EmTech India 2010 conference here today, Dr BV Ravikumar, MD, Xcyton Diagnostics, Bangalore talked about the importance of genomics for critical care.

Dr Ravikumar is of the opinion that with the advancement of human genomics, the diagnostics has changed rapidly. He said that critical infection has high mortality rate where a patient dies in 72 to 90 hours. The conventional methods take at last five to six days for the diagnosis. The challenge of diagnosing critical infections are that it should be diagnosed in 24 hours to save the patient’s life.

As infections are often localized, and there would not be any trace of infections in blood or serum, the early diagnosis is difficult. In case of bacterial and fungal infection, using the conventional diagnostics methods take 72 to 96 hours to identify the pathogen. While, diagnosis of viral infection goes up to seven days. Also, the body takes minimum five days to develop the antibodies against the pathogen.

This situation warrants a diagnosis method, which identifies pathogens within 24 hours to save lives. To address this, Xcyton Diagstics has developed a Syndrome Evaluation System, which the company calls as a paradigm shift in this field. In this system, all the genes necessary are incorporated in a chip and analyzed.

The system promises simultaneous detection of pathogens. The advantage of the system is, it takes only seven hours for the detection of critical infections, he said. The system does not not use any fluorescent gels and the end result generated by the system can be read by naked eyes.

He further said that another advantage of the system is that it can be used in district level hospitals. As of now the service has been given to some selected hospitals in the Indian states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

The second edition of the EmTech India 2010, organized by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in association with the India edition of Cyber Media's Technology Review, was inaugurated today in Bangalore. The first edition of this premier event happened in New Delhi last year. This is the second edition of EmTech conference being held out side the MIT campus, US.