Kaushik Suryakant Desai, Chief Executive Officer & Director, Global Pharmatech has been elected as Chairman, Industrial Pharmacy Division and vice president of Indian Pharmaceutical Association (IPA) for the period 2010-12.

Desai who holds a post-graduate degree in Pharmaceutical Technology from the University of Mumbai is armed with over 26 years of service in multinational companies including Johnson & Johnson, Wyeth, Hoechst India (Sanofi Aventis), May & Baker (Rhone-Poulenc). He has been responsible for commissioning the liquid, oral and tablet facilities at Baddi, in addition to bagging successful quality audits, ISO 9001: 2000 & WHO certification for the facilities during his reign in some of these companies.

Prior to his current service at Global Pharmatech, he was Vice President, Operations & Business Development with Sarvotham Care based at Baddi, Himachal Pradesh. Between February 2001 to May 2005, he was vice president, Operations with Charak Pharma, based at Mumbai and looked after activities of three manufacturing locations, Corporate Q.A., R&D, Contract manufacturing & Projects.

Veeda Clinical Research has appointed Mr Venu Madhav as the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of its unit in India. Mr Madhav brings in 19 years of experience in diverse areas of clinical research. He has been associated with reputed companies such as Ranbaxy and Sun Pharma especially in the growth period of these organizations.

Mr Madhav carries rich experience in planning bioequivalence studies from pilot to pivotal stage for generic formulations. He has designed clinical, bioanalytical, pharmacokinetic and statistical aspects of bioavailability and bioequivalence studies. He is credited to have coordinated for more than 450 pilot and pivotal biostudies for conventional formulations and extended release formulations.

He has held the responsibility for developing complex bioanalytical methods for hormonal and peptide products apart for the effective utilization of 250 methods. He has also handled more than 150 pilot and 300 pivotal bioanalytical projects with GLP compliance.

Prof. K. K. Bhutani took the charge of Director of the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER), S.A.S. Nagar, Punjab on December 31, 2009 AN. Prof. Bhutani succeeds Prof. P. Rama Rao who was held the office from July 2004 - December 2009.

Prof. Bhutani did his Ph.D. from the Panjab University, Chandigarh in the year 1977, worked as Assistant Director, Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine, Jammu (Formerly known as Regional Research Laboratory), and served various pharma industries. He joined the Department of Natural Products of NIPER, S.A.S. Nagar since its inception in the year 1994. Prof. K. K. Bhutani also served as Dean of NIPER for two terms from year 2002 - 2008.

After taking over the charge, Prof. K .K. Bhutani addressed the students and staff of the institute. He said, "I will continue the progress which is there and will definitely take forward the institute to attain new heights. The activities would be reinforced further and efforts will be made to elevate the institute’s criterion." He appealed the NIPERites for collaborative support and cooperation.

Earlier, after relinquishing the charge, Dr. Rao said, "I am very much thankful to Prof. K. K. Bhutani and all my colleagues and staff for their support, who worked with me for the last fourteen and half year in this institute. Because of their cooperation, we brought this institute to achieve new dimensions. I wish all best of luck to Prof. K. K. Bhutani in taking forward this institute."

Prof. Bhutani's research interests include areas of inflammation, life style diseases, protozoal diseases, viral infections and microbicides for drug discovery and development. His group also works for NCEs' generation, standardisation of Ayurvedic single and polyherbal drugs, development and validation of analytical methods for medicinal plants and formulations. Bioprospecting of hot spot biodiversity of north-east India for NCEs generation. He has published and presented over 180 research papers, 13 patent and 05 books to his credit. For his research achievements, Prof. Bhutani has been accorded several prestigious awards, which also include the US AID Visiting Scientist Fellowship, USA. He is an International Fellow Sigma XI of Sigma XI - The Scientific Research Society of North America; Fellow, American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists USA; Member Policy Group on Medicinal Chemistry. Prof. Bhutani amended and laid down new academic rules during his tenure as Dean of NIPER and was instrumental in establishing the "Placement cell" & "NIPER-Alumni" of the institute.

Viloo Morawala-Patell, the Chairman and Managing Director of Avesthagen, a biotechnology company has won Karmaveer Puraskaar. The awards are being given away by iCONGO, the Indian Confederation of NGOs, which is a collective hub, think tank and the voice of the Citizens and NGO sector in India.

Karmaveer Puraskaar is an annual award for Social Justice & Citizen Action that honors individuals who have been pivotal in leading change by working on social issues.

Executive director of Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council (Pharmexcil) Dr PV Appaji has received the prestigious Indian Pharmacy Graduates Association (IPGA) 'Eminent Pharmacy Graduate Award' for the year 2008. He received this award for his outstanding contributions towards the advancement of pharmaceutical profession..

The award was present during a function in Hyderabad where the IPGA had its annual general body meeting on November 15. Past president S N Sobti, General Secretary Arun Garg, President AP State Branch G Dharma Data of IPGA and Director Drug Control Administration M Kodandaram, President AP Pharmacy Council Dr M Venkat Reddy and other dignitaries were present on the occasion.

Dr P V Appaji has done his post graduation and Doctorate in Pharmaceutical Sciences from Nagpur University, Nagpur, India. He started his career in 1975 with the Drugs Control Organization, Government of Andhra Pradesh. He joined Government of India at New Delhi in 1981 and worked in various capacities as technical officer, deputy director, deputy development commissioner and director in the Ministries of Industry, Chemicals and Fertilizers etc.

Professor CNR Rao will receive the prestigious August-Wilhelm-von-Hoffmann medal. With this honor, he becomes the first Indian Scientist to receive this prestigious award for country. He received this award for his outstanding contributions in Chemistry by the German Chemical Society. The medal will be presented to Prof. Rao in the European Chemical Congress in Nurnberg on August 29, 2010.

This award earlier has been given to Nobel laureates and leaders in Chemical research. Prof. Rao is presently working as chairman of Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India.