The President, Pharmacy Council of India and Vice Chancellor, JSS University, Mysore B Suresh said pharmacy education in India had undergone a paradigm shift in the last two decades from the development of novel drug delivery systems to the pharmacogenomics based personalised medicine.

However the Pharmacy education in India was responding at a much slower pace compared to the western country. Talking to the presspersons here on Tuesday, Dr. Suresh said biotechnologists, chemists, materials science, experts and chemical engineers have started playing leadership role in driving the drug discovery and development process.

To address these issues, the Pharmacy Council of India implemented the introduction of a practice-based six years ‘Doctor of Pharmacy - Pharm.D’ degree program by the PCI. The introduction of Pharm.D course brought about a renaissance in Pharmacy Education in India. This multi-faceted course redefined the role of pharmacists in the Indian healthcare system.

Dr. Suresh said that Precision medicine is an emerging approach of medicine which looks at the root cause of an illness, rather than addressing the symptoms alone. Precision medicine may not be very well known as Personalized Medicine. But they are one and the same. It takes into account individual variability in genes, environment, and lifestyle for each person. The need and its potential in the Indian Healthcare scenario is high, considering that the system is under great pressure due to sheer numbers.

Precision Medicine in the country is considered to be at an early adoption stage. A diverse country like India, with over 4000 population groups, and a significant percentage of consanguineous marriages presents a high-risk and prevalence of inherited genetic disorders that require attention for early diagnosis, right treatment, and management. India has a heavy burden of inherited diseases driven by the unique genetic characteristics in the population. With 1.3 billion people, the absolute number of patients suffering from diseases in which genetics play a role is significantly large.