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Pharm D graduates in India have now become eligible to apply for the positions such as Scientist B, C and D in the pharmacy wing of the research streams under the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
Through an amendment, the council included Pharm D as a qualification for scientist cadres in its recruitment rules and the notification in this regard was issued on the 22nd of this month.
As per the amended rules, the Pharm D graduates are also eligible to apply for the positions such as Scientist E, F and G, but additional qualification of PhD is necessary for these posts. For inclusion of Pharm D into the eligibility criteria of the research scientists, the ICMR has amended the education and qualification norms for various posts of research scientists in accordance with ICMR HRSC Rules 2007.
With this, the Pharm D graduates can apply for various scientist posts in different institutes of the ICMR as and when the council calls for applications.
As per the Health Research Scientist Cadre (HRSC) Rules 2007 of the ICMR, there are five streams of research wings under the ICMR like medical, dental, pharmacy, veterinary and non-medical. According to sources, ICMR has 26 research institutes across the country and they undertake researches on specific health topics such as tuberculosis, leprosy, cholera and diarrheal diseases, viral diseases including AIDS, malaria, vector control, nutrition, food and drug toxicology, reproduction, immune-hematology, oncology, medical statistics, etc. ICMR is an autonomous institution under the Department of Health Research (DHR) under the Union health ministry.
With the approval of Pharm D as an eligible qualification for research scientists under ICMR the graduates of the doctoral pharmacy programme have got one more position under the health ministry in the position of research officers as they were already approved and accepted by the Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission (IPC) as Junior Associates for its pharmacovigilance programme (PvPI), the flagship drug safety monitoring programme of the country. IPC is also an autonomous institution under the union ministry of health and family welfare.
Quoting an office memorandum issued by the ICMR, Dr. Kayala V Jagadeesh, general secretary of the Andhra Pradesh based Association for Doctor of Pharmacy (ADP), a national organisation of Pharm D graduates, said the amendment in the Health Research Scientist Cadre Rules 2007 was done with the approval of the union health minister who is the president of the governing council of the ICMR. He claimed that his association had put pressure on ICMR to include Pharm D as a qualification in the recruitment rules of the council for various job opportunities.
Dr. Jagadeesh further said, with the request of ADP, the department of health research (DHR) had in June 2021 recognized and approved the Pharm D qualification for the posts of research officer, field supervisor, field investigator etc. for the project of Health Technology Assessment in India (HTAIn) under DHR. HTAIn is an institutional body established in 2017 under the Department of Health Research as a health technology mechanism to prioritize national health spending.
ADP which has branches all over India had given several representations to the ICMR and to the DHR to include Pharm D as an approved qualification in their recruitment guidelines for various job opportunities. Dr. Jagadeesh, a first batch Pharm D in India, is now working as Health Policy Analyst under DHR in New Delhi.
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