Diploma in Pharmacy Eligibility, Top Colleges, Syllabus, Duration, Salary

Diploma in Pharmacy is a 2-year full-time Diploma course divided into 4 semesters. This program has been designed to prepare candidates to work under the
supervision of a licensed pharmacist in hospitals, community pharmacies, and other related pharmaceutical fields.

Typical duties of a Pharmacy Technician include:

• Preparing medication for dispensing and compounding pharmaceuticals.
• Preparing aseptic products, performing inventory control, purchasing, merchandising, and record-keeping as required under such acts as the Food and Drug Act.
• Assisting in narcotics control, third party billing, drug distribution, pre-packing pharmaceuticals, computer processing, and clerical and other duties as necessary.

Some of the top institutes offering the course in the country are:

• Lovely professional university, Jalandhar
• Sandip University, Nasik
• Integral University, Lucknow
• DIT University, Dehradun 
• SGT University, Gurgaon.

Some of the top entrance tests conducted for admission to the course in India are:

• GPAT
• UPSEE
• JEE Pharmacy
• AU AIMEE Pharmacy
• CPMT
• PMET.

The basic eligibility criterion for pursuing the course is a 10+2 or equivalent qualification in any stream from a recognized educational Board.

Admission to the course is based on the candidate’s performance in a relevant entrance exam, or merit obtained in the last qualifying exam.

The average tuition fee charged for the course in India ranges between INR 9,000 to 2,00,000.

Successful graduates of the course can expect anything around INR 1,00,000 to 10,00,000 as annual salary in the industry, increasing with experience and skillset.

Diploma in Pharmacy: Course Highlights

Tabulated below are some of the major highlights of the course:

Diploma in Pharmacy: What is it all About?

The course is a career-oriented program in the medical field of Pharmacy, designed to familiarize candidates with the basic concepts of pharmaceutical science.

The purpose of the program is to prepare students with the necessary skills and academic knowledge for entry-level positions in retail pharmacies as well as pharmaceutical companies. The course essentially provides an overview of the theory, and various principles and practices involved in the science of pharmacy.

Components of study within the course’s curriculum include pharmacy software practice, accurate and safe processing of prescriptions, compounding techniques, third party billing, inventory control, adherence to relevant legislation, accurate and confidential record-keeping, and effectively verbal and written communication.

Such candidates are prepared to work as members of an interdependent health-care team. They are taught industry ethics including those involving patient-provider relationships, clinical research, and end-of-life care. This course examines other ethical topics such as distribution of scarce resources, use of stem cells, the role of genetic testing, and issues of human cloning.

Students are taught to reviews drug approval processes, drug discovery, pharmaceutical applications. They learn about the vast regulatory requirements involved in testing, screening, pre-clinical, and clinical trials of drugs.

The course aims to prepare eligible candidates to:

• Fill orders under a pharmacist's supervision, enter client information.
• Identify prescriptions, and process paperwork for orders.
• Understand and apply drug and medical terminology, as well as basic pharmacology.
• Understand drug dosage calculations, commonly used pharmacy computer systems, compounding, and pharmacy practices and procedures.
• Apply the ethics, legislations, and workplace safety regulations applicable to pharmacies.

The program aims to build elementary basic concepts of pharmaceutical science involving Pharmaceutics, Biochemistry and Clinical Pathology, Pharmacognosy, Human Anatomy & Physiology, Health Education, Community Pharmacy, etc. in students.

Also forming part of the curriculum are components such as:

• An examination of the various regulations and rules enacted to prevent abuse fraud and waste in the pharmaceutical industry, some particularly within the Medicare and Medicaid programs.
• Methods of auditing and detecting fraud within health care plans.
• Usage of data mapping and data mining tools in investigations.
• Chemical structures, properties, and behaviours of different pharmaceuticals.
• Alleviation of pain and sufferings caused by various diseases through discovery and development of safe and effective drugs/medicines.
• Scientific information regarding pharmacology of drugs that include the practical aspects of pharmacological screening for various medicinal agents using the appropriate animal model, biological standardisation, pharmacology calculations, and in-vivo drug interactions and toxicity studies.

Such candidates are familiarized with concepts of billing and electronic health records, office and clinical procedures, medical transcription, apart from the clerical, technical, and medical skills needed to work in the pharmaceutical industry.

They are also trained in Standard First Aid with CPR & AED, and Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System.

Top Institutes offering Diploma in Pharmacy

Listed below are some of the top institutes in India that offer the course:

Eligibility for Diploma in Pharmacy

Listed below are the minimum criteria which candidates interested in pursuing the course are required to fulfil, in order to be eligible to apply for the course:

• Successful qualification of the 10+2 level of education in any stream, from a recognized educational Board.
• A minimum aggregate score of 50% (45% for SC/ST/OBC candidates) at the 10+2 level.

Diploma in Pharmacy: Admission Process

Most institutes offering the course admit students based on performance in a relevant entrance test, often followed by a round of personal interview, wherein their general aptitude for the course is tested. Admission process generally varies across colleges.

A few institutes also provide direct admission based on the candidate’s performance at the 10+2 level.

Some of such entrance tests conducted in India are:

• GPAT
• UPSEE
• JEE Pharmacy
• AU AIMEE Pharmacy
• CPMT
• PMET.

Diploma in Pharmacy: Syllabus and Course Description

A year - wise breakup of the course’s syllabus is given below:

Diploma in Pharmacy: Career Prospects

Certificate Holders of Diploma in Pharmacy may start practicing as pharmacists in India. They may also work at drug stores in government hospitals, clinics, private hospitals, community health centres, or private drug stores. Across various kinds of work setups, they usually check prescriptions (made by the doctor), provide patients advice and directions, dispense drugs to patients, keep stock of drugs in storage, maintain accounts and inventory.

Other than working for hospitals or private drug stores, such professionals may even start their own private drug stores, with access to decent financial resources and entrepreneurship skills.

In pharmaceutical companies, they work at divisions like process control, manufacturing, quality control, and marketing. While in the marketing sector, they may work for firms involved in pharmaceutical products marketing. They may also work as:

• Medical representatives, medical transcriptionists, technical supervisors.
• Chemists, pharmacists, quality analysts, medical representatives.
• Production executives, scientific officers in private firms.

Some of the popular professional avenues open to such professionals are listed below along with their corresponding job description and salary offered for each post:

Aspirants seeking to get admission to a full-time program should have passed 10+2 from a recognized board.