India’s first Pharma University to be established in Hyderabad

The state government of Telangana is taking fast initiatives to establish the first Pharma University in the country in Hyderabad. The industry experts from the pharma, biotechnology, and healthcare sectors believe that this decisive step would further consolidate the knowledge base of the country and help boost the already flourishing pharma industry it has. It will improve the quality of pharma education and further enhance the high level of research that must be carried out during drug development.

Expressing his views, Sanjay Reddy asserted that the state government of Telangana’s initiative to establish an exclusive Pharma University is a very much welcome sign for the pharmacy education in Telangana. He is a member of the Pharmacy Council of Telangana,

“It is ironic that even though Telangana has more than 185 pharmacy colleges, there is no proper dedicated university to guide and regulate pharmacy education in the state. All these days, other universities like JNTU and Osmania University were giving affiliations to the newly established pharmacy colleges in the state. But unfortunately, these colleges, which were given permission and affiliations from the respective universities, have been violating various regulatory norms and are unable to provide properly qualified staff no proper facilities, because of which the quality of pharmacy education is going down day by day. However, if an exclusive Pharma University is established, it will help ensure improved quality of pharmacy education in the state,” Sanjay Reddy observed.

Suppose the state government of Telangana’s initiative of establishing its new Pharma University finds success. In that case, it will become the first Pharma University in the country and the only third such pharma university globally. “The pharmacy university, which is expected to come up in the Hyderabad Pharma City, is one of Asia’s largest integrated pharmaceutical research, manufacturing and innovation hubs providing a one-stop-shop for the entire gamut of drug development,” said K Taraka Rama Rao. The Minister for Industries in the state government of Telangana.

Explaining how the pharma sector has grown after having humble beginnings in a nascent stage in the 1990s, Dr. Reddy commented that initially, only two pharmacy colleges were run in the entire erstwhile Andhra Pradesh state. The first of these colleges was Andhra University and the second college was at Kakatiya University. However, this number has increased to 10 colleges in the year 2000. Later during the period of the Indian National Congress regime, the fee reimbursement scheme provided by the then Congress government in 2004-05 and it helped increase the number of colleges so that it grew up to more than 100 and later in 2010 and has kept growing up till now this number so that now it has reached to more than 185 colleges. These 185 colleges churn out more than 10,000 B Pharmacy graduates every single year.

“Today, more than 10,000 pharmacy graduates are passing out every year; however, with the pharmacy colleges not adhering to regulatory norms, the quality of education offered in them is not up to the mark. If a new Pharmacy university is established, it will push to advance research in drug development and enable innovations that would help provide various complex healthcare problems,” observed Ashish Mishra. He is a leading pharma industry consultant.

The country’s pharmaceutical industry o the country has won the attention of the various state governments and union governments ever since the COVID-19 pandemic and the contribution of the sector in fighting COVID-19. One must note that India has the unique achievement of being the first country to be the birthplace of two COVID-19 vaccines.