Pharmacy is a health care profession concerned with the management of drug therapy in patients. Pharmacy also involves the generation and distribution of drug information’s, which assists in the proper selection and use of drugs. The scope of pharmacy includes the synthesis, analysis and biological evaluation of medicinal value molecules as well as the cultivation, isolation and characterization of medicinal plants. The history of pharmaceutical education follows the system of medical education. In India, the pharmacy education undergone tremendous advancements over the decades and reached the standards of international requirements.
The person with pharmacy qualification is known as pharmacist, who are the authorized professionals to handle medicines at all levels. The Drugs and Cosmetic Act, 1940 and other regulators such as Pharmacy Council of India (PCI) emphasizes and ensures the presence of pharmacists where drugs and medicines are handled. Pharmacists play a significant role in providing health care by assisting the other health care professionals and also the patients.
The four years graduate degree pharmacy program (BPharm) provides all the skills required from the pharmacy profession. The B. Pharmacy program in JSS College of Pharmacy adopted the uniform syllabus prescribed by Pharmacy Council of India (PCI). The pharmacy has been accredited by National Board of Accreditation (NBA) and also received several national and international accreditations.
The B. Pharmacy degree course is a four year academic program spreading eight semesters. All the subjects prescribed by the pharmacy council of india provides impetus and skill development in the pharmacy discipline. The subjects are grouped and briefly described below for the immediate understanding. However, the complete syllabus provides the complete structure.
Pharmaceutics: Pharmaceutics deals with the formulation of a pure drug substance into a dosage form. It includes the physical pharmaceutics, pharmaceutical engineering, industrial pharmacy, quality assurance, biopharmaceutics and pharmacokinetics and novel drug delivery system subjects. These subjects provides knowledge on concepts of formulation and analysis of various pharmaceuticals and cosmetics, pharmacokinetic parameters and regulatory aspects prescribed by pharmacopoeias, FDA, WHO and ISO.
Pharmaceutical Chemistry: Pharmaceutical Chemistry is a highly interdisciplinary discipline and provides various aspects of drug discovery, development and design. This discipline also covers the identity, purity, efficacy and safety aspects of pharmaceuticals (pharmaceutical analysis). It provides knowledge on inorganic chemistry, biochemistry, organic chemistry, medicinal chemistry, and chemical and instrumental analysis principles related to pharmaceuticals.
Pharmacology: Pharmacology deals with the study of drugs and their interactions on living systems (pharmacodynamics). Pharmacodynamics covers the drug receptor interactions and mechanism of actions. It also provides knowledge on practical aspects of pharmacological screening (animal models), pharmacology calculations, biological standardisation, drug interactions and toxicity studies.
Pharmacognosy: The scope of pharmacognosy includes the analysis of the physicochemical, biochemical and biological properties of natural crude drugs, which are derived from plants, microbes and animals. This also covers discovery, characterization, production and standardisation of crude drugs. The subjects provides detailed understanding about cultivation technology, biogenesis of phytoconstituents, biotechnological concepts and therapeutic utility of crude drugs.
Pharmacy practice provides an understanding of the processes involved in providing primary healthcare, drug information and other clinical pharmacy services provided in Hospital, Clinical and Community Pharmacy set up. The subjects enable students to acquire knowledge of patient counselling, drug information, adverse drug reaction monitoring (ADR) and therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM).
The program includes both offline (class room based) and on-line (LMS portal and online meetings) teaching. The teaching and practicals of this course incorporates Problem-Based Learning (PBL), adequate pedagogical training and Computer-Aided Learning (CAL) wherever necessary. These advanced subjects such as pharmaceutical regulatory science, cell and molecular biology and computer-aided drug design are incorporated in the 8th semester elective category.
A candidate who has passed the Diploma in Pharmacy course of Educational Regulations 1991 under Pharmacy Act 1948 from an institution approved by the Pharmacy Council of India with a minimum of 50% marks in the final year examinations will be eligible.
Qualified pharmacists are eligible to serve in wide range of sectors and are listed below.
To make JSS College of Pharmacy, Mysuru as the 'Research Hub' and 'Centre of Excellence in Regulatory Sciences'
Dr M P Venkatesh is presently working as Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmaceutics. He has good research experience in development and characterization of Novel Drug Delivery Systems and Oncology products. In his more than 16 years of teaching experience, he has published more than 164 scientific papers in peer reviewed national and international journals. He has guided 54 PG students and presently guiding 05 Ph.D students. He is member of various professional organizations.
Dr. M.P. Venkatesh is appointed as Guest Assistant Professor, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at UCSI University, Kaula Lampur, Malaysia.
Development of Novel delivery systems (In situ gels, NLCs)
Pharmaceutical Regulatory Affairs