November 29, 2010
School of Pharmacy, Kochi
 

Affordable Medicines for All. Do you know which Indian Pharmaceutical Association uses this tagline?
 

Students of the Amrita School of Pharmacy did, as they confidently replied, National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority.
 

Ms. Rijo Mary George and Mr. Atul Sangith were competing in the Pan South Indian Pharmacy Quiz Competition 2010 organized recently as part of National Pharmacy Week celebrations in Chennai.
 

Hosted by the Madras Medical College and supported by the Indian Pharmacist Association, the quiz saw the participation of students from about 450 pharmacy colleges in South India.
 

“Name the Indian organizations that help regulate the bio-piracy of drugs,” the Amrita students were asked.
 

“CSIR and AYUSH,” they replied, being familiar with the work of these institutions that protect the traditional knowledge of India from being inappropriately patented abroad.
 

Next, the students correctly recalled the name of the Chinese company that had recently acquired the rights to market Pudina to treat H1N1 – Livzon Pharmaceutical Group Inc.
 

They were able to provide seemingly obscure answers such as texiety, which was the anxiety felt when anxiously waiting for someone to respond to a text message and Nageswara Rao Panthulu, who was associated with the medical formulation, Amrutanjan.
 

“The preliminary rounds were rather competitive,” shared the two students, later. “Only six teams made it to the finals.”
 

In the final round, students were grilled on general pharmacy, industrial pharmacy, pharmacology, history of pharmacy, therapeutic pharmacy and recent developments in pharmacy.
 

Scoring point after point, the Amrita students finally beat all other teams to come in first.
 

They were awarded a cash prize of Rs. 25,000. In addition, they received a trophy and merit certificates.
 

“It was a rather good experience,” they stated. “We interacted with students of so many colleges from different states. Moreover, we learned a lot about new subject areas.”
 

Ms. Rijo Mary George is an M.Pharm student of Pharmacy Practice and Mr. Atul Sangith, a second-year student of B.Pharm.
 

Their achievement is bound to inspire their classmates, and motivate them to participate in similar contests. The two students recalled the support they had received from their faculty.
 

“We express our sincere thanks to all our teachers. They provided much guidance and encouraged us to give our best.”