Pharmaceutical Sciences For The Future

Pharmaceutical sciences are changing so dramatically that a strong leadership is required to steer pharmacy education through this transitional phase, along with a dynamic curriculum…

There has been a sea change in the pharma sector’s approach to drug discovery and development.

However, pharmacy education still maintains a traditional approach to its curriculum and education. It is important to understand the research trends in the pharmaceutical industry to determine whether India’s postgraduate and doctoral programmes are strategically positioned to prepare graduates for successful careers in the next few decades. The undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in pharmaceutical sciences should prepare and equip the graduates in meeting the needs of the employers, imbibing a culture of innovation and collaboration, that our industry needs to be successful and relevant in this century.

Biologics has been the fastest-growing class of new drugs and accounts for 33% of all new drug applications (NDAs). Pharma sector has been continuously pursuing an approach to feed their pipeline, and even modifying the large corporations into smaller, more flexible, mobile divisions in the spirit of the startup phenomena to increase competitiveness and creativity. Recently, an approval pathway for biosimilars has become available which will further fuel the growth of biological drug approval, resulting in a growing need for appropriately trained graduates. Personalized medicine is also accounting for a growing number of drugs in the pipeline, estimated between 12-50%.

Emerging areas