The Department of Pharmacy organized a daylong event in commemoration of World Pharmacists Day on September 25, 2019. The event was sponsored by Beximco Pharmaceuticals Ltd.and Beacon Pharmaceutical Ltd. This year’s theme, “Safe and Effective Medicines for All”, aimed to promote the crucial role of pharmacists in safeguarding patient safety through improving medicine use and reducing medication errors.
The morning started with a panel discussion featuring distinguished experts from the pharmaceutical industry, where Mr. Jahangir Hyder, Head of Business Development, ACME Laboratories Ltd. was the key note speaker of the discussion. The other panelists includedDr. RiadMamunProdhani, Managing Director and Country President, Novartis (Bangladesh) Ltd.;Mr. Md. Mizanur Rahman, Executive Director, Operations, Square Pharmaceuticals Ltd.; Mr. Ahmed KamrulAlam, Director, Marketing, Square Pharmaceuticals Ltd.; Mr. M. Motiar Rahman, Director, QA, Eskayef Pharmaceuticals Ltd.; Mr. Ehsan Aziz, General Manager, Marketing, Incepta Pharmaceuticals Ltd.; and Mr. Hasan Uz Zaman, Head, Vision Acceleration, Roche Bangladesh Ltd.
The panelists participated in a highly engaging session where the topic was “Counterfeit Medicines: A Global Problem.” The experts shared their valuable insights on medicines that are highly likely to be counterfeited and measures currently being taken by pharmaceutical companies to prevent counterfeit drugs. The panel agreed on several measures that can be taken in the future to abolish the counterfeit drug industry. One of the measures agreed on was carrying out public awareness campaigns through an industrial-academia partnership. The panelists also emphasized on the importance of digitalization of the supply chain and the need for a strong regulatory framework in combatting drug counterfeiting.
The panel discussion was followed by the finale of the first ever i-TELL Challenge where participants presented on topics related to the ‘Future of Medicine.’ After a preliminary round of presentations, ten teams, divided into three groups,werechosen for the finale. The winners for each group were: Group 1- SyedaMaliha Ahmed (Monitoring Health Using Ingestible Capsule); Group 2-Amal Chowdhury and AdibaBinteRazzak (Treatment Through Video Games);Group 3- ShihabUdDawla, Nasrin Ahmed Tahrim(Cannabis: A Potential Aid in Cure) and Bagdad Ahmed (Financial Weapon to Cure Cancer: Too Risky or Worthy?).
The afternoon session started off with the final round of the Pharma Debate 2019 competition in which the students debated on the topic ‘It is ethical to use genetically modified mosquitoes to fight mosquito-borne diseases.’ After a very engrossing exchange of opinions, the team against the motion,consisting of Wakyaya Brian and Namanda Fred, were deemed victorious.
The debate was followed by a seminar on ‘Good Pharmacy Practice in Clinical Settings’ by Mr. Mohamed Ramzy Ismail, Technical Officer, Essential Drugs and Other Medications, WHO Country Office Bangladesh. Mr. Ismail described the roles that graduate pharmacists can perform in hospitals to improve outcomes of medical treatments. He also provided advice on how the academic curriculum can be modified to train students for such roles. He mentioned that the WHO is already working with the Bangladesh government to introduce jobs for graduate pharmacists in public healthcare institutions. He concluded by advising students to prepare for community and clinical pharmacy oriented jobs in the near future.
The last part of the afternoon session featured the Pharma QuizBee semi-final and final competition. After much suspense and enthusiastic support from the audience, Md. Ismail Raju and Anika Akter became winners of the competition.
Throughout the day, there was a boothwhich had facilities to check blood glucose level and BMI, and where students of the Department of Pharmacy handed out leaflets to students, faculty, staff and guardians of the students of the university. The leaflets included information that would be useful in daily life to maximize the safety and effectiveness of commonly used medicines. Students were available to provide more detailed information upon request.In addition,representatives from the Brac University Medical Team and the Brac University Counseling Unitwere also present to provide their services.
The daylong event was closed off with an award giving ceremony where the Chairperson, Professor Dr. Eva Rahman Kabir handed out prizes to the winners of the various competitions and the volunteers. She also thanked everyone including the authorities of Brac University for their support and cooperation.