The students and the faculties of LFAMS- Lovely Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences, LPU and the students of pharmaceuticals from all over India had the privilege to witness and interact with the eminent researchers of the nation and got to know about their work in various pharmaceutical fields from them in the 2nd International Conference of Pharmacy held at Lovely Professional University, in collaboration with Indian Pharmacy Graduate Association (IPGA), Phagwara, on September 13, 2019.

Dr. Dhiraj Chopra, Dr. Subhashis Chakraborty, and Dr. N. Ganesh were the keynote speakers of the conference based on the theme: Realigning the Focus on Health. Mrs. Rashmi Mittal, the Pro-Chancellor and the Dean of LFAMS, Dr. Monica Gulati inaugurated the conference along with the keynote speakers.

Dr. Dhiraj Chopra is the Vice President of R&D, Amneal and Dr. Subhashis Chakraborty is the Director of Key Account Management at Asia South, Health Care. Dr. N. Ganesh is the Head & Senior Scientist at Jawaharlal Nehru Cancer Hospital, Bhopal currently working on tumor cells and anti-cancer drugs.

International Conference of PharmacyThe conference was on recent research and advancement in the field of pharmaceutical sciences and new innovative ways and ideas that might be helpful in the coming years. It was an interesting and knowledgeable session. The teachers and students who couldn’t make it to the conference, here are some of the important details shared by the keynoters;

Dr. Dhiraj Chopra:

International Conference of PharmacyHe presented the topic: Development of Particulate Drug Delivery.

He started with the evolution of depot injections. Not so long ago, depot injections faced many limitations. They may include short half-life, multiple pricking, repeat dosing, and multiple visits to the doctor/clinic, etc. These issues have been resolved over the years with the advancement in technology.

Then he discussed the Microsphere as a drug delivery system. In the microsphere drug delivery system, the pores on the microsphere present in the drug allow the body fluids to enter inside the microsphere and dissolve the drug constituents for its action. As the number of pores increase, the time to dissolve the drug decrease.

 

Dr. Subhashis Chakraborty:

International Conference of PharmacyThe topic of his discussion was ‘Bioresorbable Polymers in Advanced Therapeutic Applications’.

He opened with the discussion of two kinds of polymers i.e. homopolymers and heteropolymers and in what kind of structures they exist. The homopolymers form a semi-crystalline structure whereas heteropolymers form an amorphous structure. The semi-crystalline structure has some strength due to a compact structure while amorphous structures are weak due to the larger distance present between the monomer units. The pure crystalline structure does not exist in bioresorbable polymers.

Then he described how monomers themselves act as impurities in the bioresorbable polymers and lower the shelf life of the same.

He made everyone aware of the Medical Devices that are used in several surgeries and chemotherapies that work on the principle of bioresorbable polymers. These include Staples, Meniscal Dart, Inference Screw, CMF Plate, Coronary Stents, etc.

Dr. N. Ganesh:

International Conference of PharmacyHe shared his views and work on ‘Experimental Innovations & Scientific Approaches for Targeted Drug Delivery’. He opened his discussion with the ethical problems faced in research like bio-piracy and plagiarism.

He then shared his work on tumor cells and anti-cancer drugs with the participants. He described his work on colon cancer in detail- how he made the record by developing a tumor just in 5 days where it took a minimum of 60 days to develop the tumor once the targeted site is infected.

The conference ended with the question-answer session followed by an e-poster presentation by the students of B-pharmacy and M-pharmacy.