272 NIPER students get degrees

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 13

As many as 272 students were awarded degrees at the 10th convocation of the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER) on Saturday. G Padmanaban, Former Director of the Indian Institute of Science (IISC), Bangalore, and NASI Platinum Jubliee Senior Scientist, was the chief guest on the occasion. 

While the chairman of the board of governors of NIPER, VM Katoch skipped the event, Raghuram Rao Akkinepally, director, presided over the convocation. He congratulated all students and said the success of NIPER, Mohali, had encouraged the Centre to set up more NIPERs across the country. 

Padmanaban said the big pharma had an ambition to manufacture new drug entities, but long time lines, high costs and above all knowledge gap and poor basic R and D led to a set-back in the new drug discovery. 

He said the pharmacy education needed to integrate with the modern science streams. Tanya Ralli, MS (Pharma), batch 2016-18, and Misbah Ajaz Lone, MBA (Pharma) batch 2016-18, were the gold medallists among the degree recipients. The first convocation of the institute was held in 2001. During the past convocations, a total of 2,698 master’s students and 270 PhD students have been awarded degrees.