On July 16, A function was organized in Chennai to celebrate the completion of 25 years of the formation of the Tamil Nadu Pharmaceutical Sciences Welfare trust. I was invited to that the function, which was attended by several dignitaries such as, Dr. V. K. Subburaj, former secretary, Department of Pharmaceuticals, Dr. J. Radhakrishnan, secretary for health and family welfare, Govt. of Tamil Nadu, Prof. B. Suresh, President, Pharmacy Council of India, Dr. Shailesh Ayyangar, MD, Sanofi India Ltd., and President, OPPI, Mr. S. Abdul Khader, Director, Drugs Control, Tamil Nadu, Dr. S. Manivannan, Dy. Drugs Controller of India, South Zone and Mr. S. V. Veerramani, President, IDMA, and the chairman of the trust. It was great to see the heads of
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This trust has more than 25 trustees and from the day one of its inception it was involved in the service to the profession. Through this trust, student fellowships were disbursed to deserving undergraduate and postgraduate students, travel grants were provided to academic researchers presenting papers at conferences and the Trust supported the state government and the public in overcoming natural calamities such as the Tamil Nadu Floods last year. This trust has set up an ideal example of how various trusts managed by IPA state and local branches should function. I take this opportunity to congratulate the Tamil Nadu Pharmaceutical Sciences Welfare Trust and its Trustees for their excellent service to the profession and the …show more content…
According to Dr. Subburaj, there is a tremendous scope for new innovations, since the disease burden is increasing despite increased life expectancy and developments in science and technology. Cancer incidence is steadily increasing since the past 10 years creating a huge demand for expensive anticancer drugs. India registers about 1 to 1.5 million cases of cancer each year. Another major concern is the disease burden due to chronic hepatitis B and C infections, which India has more than 40 million infected people out of which 600,000 patients succumb to the infection every year, yet the treatments for these diseases are very expensive and out of reach to most patients. There are still many more diseases such as genetic disorders with no treatments. A major task facing our Research and Development is to make these cures available. NIPERs have been set up with this objective but the process of getting to a fully functional state has been very slow. At this point Dr. Subburaj exhorts that the top 100 pharmacy colleges should take the initiate to function as mini NIPERs to strengthen the research and development efforts to find treatment solutions to the unmet medical needs of Indian Population. I wonder if our academic researchers are listening and are prepared to handle this
This trust has more than 25 trustees and from the day one of its inception it was involved in the service to the profession. Through this trust, student fellowships were disbursed to deserving undergraduate and postgraduate students, travel grants were provided to academic researchers presenting papers at conferences and the Trust supported the state government and the public in overcoming natural calamities such as the Tamil Nadu Floods last year. This trust has set up an ideal example of how various trusts managed by IPA state and local branches should function. I take this opportunity to congratulate the Tamil Nadu Pharmaceutical Sciences Welfare Trust and its Trustees for their excellent service to the profession and the …show more content…
According to Dr. Subburaj, there is a tremendous scope for new innovations, since the disease burden is increasing despite increased life expectancy and developments in science and technology. Cancer incidence is steadily increasing since the past 10 years creating a huge demand for expensive anticancer drugs. India registers about 1 to 1.5 million cases of cancer each year. Another major concern is the disease burden due to chronic hepatitis B and C infections, which India has more than 40 million infected people out of which 600,000 patients succumb to the infection every year, yet the treatments for these diseases are very expensive and out of reach to most patients. There are still many more diseases such as genetic disorders with no treatments. A major task facing our Research and Development is to make these cures available. NIPERs have been set up with this objective but the process of getting to a fully functional state has been very slow. At this point Dr. Subburaj exhorts that the top 100 pharmacy colleges should take the initiate to function as mini NIPERs to strengthen the research and development efforts to find treatment solutions to the unmet medical needs of Indian Population. I wonder if our academic researchers are listening and are prepared to handle this