History of the department

The Department of Pharmaceutical Technology (previously known as Department of Pharmacy) was established in 1963, and it was then the first and the only institute in Eastern India offering four years degree course in Pharmaceutical Technology. Although with time, a number pharmacy colleges / institutes have come up and at present there are a good number of such institutes in the Eastern region, the fact remains that since its inception, the Department of Pharmaceutical Technology of Jadavpur University, Kolkata has emerged as one of the front-runners in the field of Pharmacy Education and Research in whole India. This department offers excellent infrastructure, which includes well-organised laboratories having advanced instrumental facilities, well-equipped library, well furnished classrooms, seminar room etc. It is one of the top level centres of Pharmaceutical Sciences in India. From the beginning, the uniqueness of this department remained in its bold initiative to offer courses on seven different disciplines such as Medicinal and Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Pharmaceutics, Pharmacology, Pharmacognosy, Microbiology, Biochemistry and Pharmaceutical Engineering with the objective to cater the needs of both academic institutions and industry inclusive of research and development. The department is now involved in a variety of academic programmes in addition to the usual U.G and P.G teaching and research. Thus, Nodal Cell for Quality Improvement Programmes (Q.I.P) for teachers has been instituted in the Department with approval of A.I.C.T.E, Govt. of India. The Department is running different Projects like DSA, COSIST, FIST, and MODROB etc. to uplift different activities of higher education with financial grants from different Govt. authorities like U.G.C., D.S.T., and A.I.C.T.E. etc. One Bioequivalence study centre has also been created in the Department with the approval of the Drug Controller General of India (D.C.G.I). Recently, Centre for Advanced Research (Ravichandran Endowment Fund) has been established in the Department to promote advanced research in Pharmaceutical Sciences and to give scholarship to poor students.

The first batch of students with B.Pharm degree came out in 1967 and the M.Pharm degree course of two years duration started in 1966 with two students only and their results were published in 1968. Since then, more than 1700 B.Pharm and more than 500 M.Pharm have passed out. After passing, these students have been serving different industries, academic institutions or research laboratories or regulatory bodies or some other professional disciplines. Some also took initiative to start their own business and became entrepreneur. Thus, so many industries made by our departmental alumni are now running in West Bengal and other states. Some worth mentioning are Universal Drugs House Pvt. Ltd (Dr. Sujit Kumar Das), The Oriental Chemical Works(P) Ltd. (Mr. Subho Sankar Das), Nitrochem Laboratories (Mr. Ashis Ranjan Ghosh), Dusap Pharmaceuticals (Dr. Sunil Kumar Kaushal), Hygeia Pharmaceuticals (Mr. Partha Sen) etc. Side by side, a large number of students of this department went abroad either for higher studies or for job related affairs. All of them are now well established and have become professionally dignified in those countries. Such alumni residing abroad have formed an organisation namely JUOPAA (Jadavpur University Overseas Pharmacy Alumni Association, http://www.juopaa.org).