It is important to get research projects by academic institutions from industries and industries should also give projects for new products to the market.

History of pharmaceutical institution and pharmaceutical industry started almost similar time. The first pharmaceutical industry from private sector was to be built in the name of Nepal Pharmaceutical Works at Godavari in 1969 but it could not run due to site problem. Before that a separate production unit was established in the Royal Drugs Research Laboratory which was converted into Royal Drugs Laboratory (RDL) in 1972. Chemidrug Industries Pvt. Ltd. Is the first pharmaceutical industry which started production. Institute of Medicine, Tribhuvan University started Intermediate Pharmacy (IPharm) for the first time in Nepal in 1972 which is running at present as well. There is significant increment of number of pharmaceutical industries without a huge gap in increment but pharmacy academic growth could not happen as it had to be for a long time. After 22 years of a gap, Kathmandu University started Bachelor of Pharmacy (BPharm) of four year for the first time in Nepal. At present, Pokhara University has BPharm and MPharm program. Tribhuvan University and Asian College of Advanced studies has BPharm program of Purbanchal University. Purbanchal University has given affiliation to another seven private colleges to run BPharm program this year. Out of seven, six are with in Kathmandu valley and one is located in Chitwan. Moreover, there are 21 colleges which are running Diploma in Pharmacy (DPharma) colleges under council of Technical Education and Vocational Training (CTEVT), Sanothimi, Bhaktapur. There are 39 pharmaceutical industries in Nepal (http://www.dda.gov.np/industry.php; 08 February 2008) out of which 11 has been awarded World Health Organization Good Manufacturing Practices (WHO GMP). There are 487 pharmacists and 125 pharmacy technicians registered in Nepal Pharmacy Council till 02 February 2008.

It is tried to focus on few points on which pharmaceutical industries and academic institutions should pay role together and they are discussed on the successive paragraphs.

Revised syllabus, practical exercise and access to research journals and internet

There is no doubt that industry needs professional, having good attitude and aptitude and competent pharmacist. Academic institution plays a major role to shape a future pharmacist. For this academic institution revises syllabus continuously and cater theoretical and practical knowledge to students based on that syllabus. During revision of the course, institution always thinks of industrial needs. Academic institution should be a store of knowledge resources for which it should have books of latest edition and research journals in a well established library. As most of journals are online these days, internet services round a clock should be provided with access to the journals.

Exposures with nation and out of nation like student exchange and industrial visit

Practical and problem based teaching are applied these days in universities because of its effectiveness. Therefore more practical exercises are kept in the syllabus. Besides that students should get exposure of industrial scale instrument, processes and utilities and documentation system before they enter into industry as a pharmacist. In order to provide this exposure to them, industries visit and internship are kept as a part of syllabus. Pharmaceutical industries have a great role to provide to them on which future of pharmacy profession and pharmaceutical industries relies on. Industries should provide consent to students for visit and internship as per their capacity no matters where they will go because this is a social responsibility of industries. Till the date most of the Nepalese pharmaceutical industries have a wide prospect on this and accept students each year.

Student exchange program of International Pharmaceutical Students’ Federation (IPSF) has been started in 2006 in Nepal accepting a pharmacy student from Serbia but it is becoming one way (not exchange) due to financial problem of students though host University is providing accommodation to them. In the exchange program, students will be benefited from exposure in industries, hospitals and academic institution of particular nation. This program is viable in other countries due to support provided by parents, institution and pharmaceutical industries but it is not becoming successful here due to lack of industrial interests and parents’ financial burden even though students want to involve in exchange.

Academia- industry linkage

Academia - industry linkage of defined as “the process in which the actors in the industrial and academic domains cooperate with each other so as to uplift the performance potential of both domains.” It is exactly due to the uplifting potential of human resources, innovation capability and induced economic efficiency that the promotion of industry-university partnership is expected as one important means to facilitate nation’s economy. According to the definition, there are two distinctive domains, the industrial one, the aim of which to product development leading to production, and the academic counterpart, the major purpose of which is knowledge creation and realization through education under the environment of mutual feeding-back between basic and applied researches. In the complementary interaction between two different domains, researchers and ideas would flow and position themselves among fitting research sectors, resulting in such returns as process innovations, product innovation, efficient resource allocation and social evaluation for those able institutions and industries. This has been successful in Japan and this collaboration has been extended to graduates employment, collaborative or outsourced research, scholarship or donations and services for industrial patenting. The following can be listed out as benefits to industries academic institutions which are having linkage to each other:

Benefits for academia

• Tune-up their syllabi and academic practices as per the requirement of the industry.
• Satisfaction for their knowledge & expertise being used for society.
• Earning of additional resources for research and development (R&D).
• Securing of training & final placements for students.
• Respect from society and industry.
• Students are able to work on industrial project.

Benefits for industry

• Reduction in industrial cost, improvement in quality & competitive dimensions in product.
• Imported formulae and process can help in making copies but not the original for global competition.
• Reduction of dependence on foreign know-how.
• Getting of high caliber professional graduates to industry.

Thus, academia-Industry partnership plays pivotal role in knowledge-based economies. Nepal Pharmaceutical Lab Pvt. Ltd. has started this trend by establishing Bioavailability and Bioequivalence Lab in Department of Pharmacy, Kathmandu University where study on ofloxacin is going on.

Research and Development (R & D) Projects:

Institutes keep on starving for the funds until the research done in academic institution in not translated in industrial realities. In other hand, industries can copy but can’t innovate product or process more efficiently until and unless they tie up with academic institution. Thus, it is important to get research projects by academic institutions from industries and industries should also give projects for new products to the market.

Development awards

Competent faculty of department/institution can apply for developmental grant to build infrastructure for research there at national and international level which will help for outsourcing research and development or to provide consultancy during which students will get benefit as they will be involved in these projects and the lab will be also sustained economically. There are numerous non-government and government organizations which are providing fund for this purpose within nation and abroad. Prof. Panna Thapa, Department of Pharmacy, Kathmandu University got a grant from Wellcome Trust, UK to establish Formulation and Drug Delivery Research Lab in the department.

Workshops/Trainings/symposium/conference

Workshops and trainings update pharmacist in recent techniques and equipment. These also upgrade knowledge and time management. Thus, these sorts of activities are important for skill and time management for increment of output. These activities should be organized in academic institutions from time to time taking participants from industries and other institutions. This sort of environment has been started in our country by establishing “Shimadzu-Kathmandu University Education Center for Pharma Professionals” at Department of Pharmacy, Kathmandu University, Dhulikhel which will conduct workshops and training program in the near future.

There should be a place to know what is going on in the nation and abroad in the particular field. For this purpose, national and international symposiums and conferences should be organized regularly. This will not only help to make network among people of similar interest but also be a meeting place between academicians and industrialists for their mutual benefits.

It can be concluded that knowledge based economic growth is always sustainable and has been proved in developed nations. Interestingly, this is the reason why they become developed countries. It has also been proved that knowledge based economy growth is possible only by linking academic and industries. This should be focused in pharmaceutical sector as well for overall economic growth. Moreover, young pharmacists should be encouraged to work here providing exposure and motivation through pay scale, knowledge updates through trainings, higher education, workshops, conferences, symposiums etc. with the cooperative between academic institutions and industries.