Pharmacy

What is Pharmacy

We can identify the professionals who diagnose our illness, but most of the people aren’t aware of the fact that the drug we take is manufactured by the Pharmacy industry, commonly known as the pharmaceutical industry. There’s a long process involved in the manufacturing of a drug, and its approval in the Pharma industry.

Pharmacists (Chemists or druggists): Pharmacists are healthcare professionals who practice in pharmacy, the field of health sciences focusing on safe and effective medication use.

They are licensed to prepare and dispense medications, involved in patient care, counsel patients, and monitor outcomes according to a prescription from a licensed health professional.

Apart from drugs too, a pharmacist has holistic roles to play in anything that has chemicals, from the food you take to the products you use, all of this comes under the umbrella of pharmacy. They have an active role to play in many industries.

Eligibility Criteria (UG & PG) of Pharmacy

UG Level

• Candidates must have passed 10+2 from a recognised board.
• Candidates must have Physics, Biology and Chemistry as their compulsory subjects.
• An aggregate of a minimum of 55 % is required.

PG Level

• Candidates must have done their Bachelor of Pharmacy  from a PCI/UGC/AICTE recognised university or institute.
• Minimum aggregate is dependent on the university you’re pitching for, but the candidate should at least have obtained 50% marks.
• The minimum age must be above 17 years by 31 December before applying.

Doctorate Level

• The candidate must have passed  M. Pharma with an aggregate of minimum 55% marks.
• The upper age limit to apply for UGC NET is 28 years. This age limit has relaxation for certain reserved categories. 

Pharmacy Entrance Exam

UPSEE – Uttar Pradesh State Entrance Exam is an exam conducted for the admission in various colleges across Uttar Pradesh. It is a state-level entrance exam conducted by AKTU (Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Technical University). It is conducted both offline and online and held in September.

WBJEE – West Bengal Joint Entrance Exam is a state-level joined entrance exam for engineering and pharmacy students conducted by the West Bengal Joint Entrance Exam Board (WBJEEB) offline in February.

GUJCET – Gujarat Common Entrance Test is a state-level entrance exam for admission in various pharma colleges and is conducted by the directorate of technical education, it is held in August, offline.

KCET – Karnataka Common Entrance Test is a state-level entrance exam conducted by Karnataka Exam Authority (KEA) in July.

PG Level

GPAT – Graduate Pharmacy Test is a national level exam conducted by AICTE to provide admission to the students willing to take admission in M. Pharma.

NIPER JEE – NIPER Joint Entrance Exam is a national-level entrance exam held across India. It awards Postgraduate level courses in the field of Pharmacies such as M.S. (Pharma), M. Pharma, M. Tech (Pharma), PhD (Pharmaceutical & Biological Sciences disciplines), and MBA (Pharma) offered by various campuses of NIPER. It is usually held in September, online.

Doctorate Level

NIPER JEE – It is a joint exam for PG and PhD candidates, held in September.

CSIR-UGC NET – National Eligibility Test: Generally held in June, it is a national level Joint CSIR-UGC Test conducted by NTA. The eligible Indian candidates are awarded Junior Research Fellowships  (JRF). 

Required Skillset for Pharmacy

In a world full of competition, having academic knowledge is never enough, to have a lucrative career, it is important to have both hard and soft skills. Some of the skills important for the Pharmacy industry are:

Communication skills- As a Pharmacy  professional one will have to deal with clients, practitioners, distributors and marketers. To make the process smooth and effective, it is important to be good in communication.

Good in ethics- This is an important skill set for a pharma industry because as a medical professional you have to protect the information of patent drugs while working in the industry and patient personal information in counselling.

Reading skills- As we know, Pharmacy is a field in which students have to deal with lots of chemical compounds, patent laws, and medicinal plants. Therefore, for the collection of information and knowledge, you have to be an avid reader and have the ability to understand what they read.

Analytical mind- As Pharmacy  is a professional course in which students have to deal with lots of analysis of drugs, compounds and how and where they show effect according to it. New developments and research take place all the time; therefore, to be good in the game, you have to have an analytical mind.

Monitoring skills:- The process of manufacturing a drug isn’t a cakewalk; it involves a lot of hard work and monitoring. Taking care of observation and proper maintenance of records is impossible to enable professionals to gather all the information about the work they are doing

Leadership quality- If you get into entrepreneurship you’ll lead a company, or if you are a project manager or a government official you’ll have lots of people working under you and to be successful in your work leadership quality plays an important role for the desired outcome.

Driven and resilient nature- In many situations you have to face failure or you have to work in an environment in which your professional life is dominant over your social life; you won’t be able to cope up if you’re driven. Developing a drug or medicine is a long-term process, you have to sit in labs without knowing a fixed time; therefore, it is very important to be patient and enthusiastic for your work.