Times of India: Aurangabad: Sunday, August 19, 2018.
Students of
the six-year Pharm D course say the Government Pharmacy College in Aurangabad
has misled the Pharmacy Council of India (PCI) over standards the institute has
to maintain to remain eligible to run the course. Replies to RTI queries by the
college show stark differences between the reality and the compliance reports
of the college. The college claims it has an animal house for testing of drugs
on animals the truth is, the women’s toilet was labelled “animal house”
during the inspection.
In the RTI
reply dated August 13, the college presented details of inspections conducted
by the PCI for the Pharm D course. One of the requirements to run the course is
availability of a functional pharmacy practice department in the college. The
compliance report of the college states that it does have a functioning
pharmacy practice department, as does the Government Medical College and
Hospital. The PCI inspector is shown as having verified this.
However,
sixth year student Ramprasad Nagare said the pharmacy practice department in
the college is completely non-functional since 2015. There is also no such
department in GMCH. A room with desks and chairs was labelled a pharmacy
practice department during the inspection in 2015. Now, that room has
computers, but it is always kept locked, Nagare said.
This
department is meant to address drug-related queries raised by doctors, patients
or pharmacists. It is also supposed to study drug-to-drug interaction and
adverse drug reactions.
An institute
offering the doctorate of pharmacy course (Pharm D) course is obliged under law
to have a functional animal house to undertake testing of drugs on animals. The
compliance report by the college claims to be equipped with an animal house;
this too has supposedly been verified by the PCI inspector.
Sixth-year
Pharm D student Amit Gotphode said the college does not have an animal house.
There is an old building meant to serve as an animal house, but it is currently
in a dilapidated condition and empty. However, during the PCI inspection visit,
the college labelled the women’s washroom as the animal house. “It is still
labelled like that,” Gotphode said.
Principal VK
Maurya said lack of staff is the reason behind the non-functional pharmacy
practice department. “We have sent a proposal, but posts for course are not yet
sanctioned by the government,” he said. On the absence of the animal house, he
said animal experimentation is banned by PCI. The ban came into effect in 2014.
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