The Department of Pharmacology, catering to pharmacy students, started in 1965 at Kasturba Medical College. Dr. Vasant Krishna Bopardikar served as the inaugural head of the department, followed by a succession of distinguished leaders — Dr. MN Guruswami, Dr. Druvraj Ranganath Kulkarni, Dr. P Ahalaya Devi, Dr. KS Karanth, and Dr. KL Bairy — who subsequently took charge.

Dr. Bopardikar initially imparted pharmacology education to D Pharm students. With the inception of the B Pharm (1965) and M Pharm (1971) programs at the College of Pharmacy, a dedicated faculty was recruited to deliver these new courses. Initially, instructors holding MSc (Pharmacology) qualifications played a pivotal role in educating pharmacy students before the subsequent recruitment of faculty with M Pharm credentials.

Among the early educators were esteemed alumni of JIPMER Pondicherry (now Puducherry), including Mr. K Ramabadran, Mr. A Chandra Bose, and Miss. KV Sesharatnam. Additionally, individuals with MSc degrees from KMC Manipal, such as Mr. RP Sequeira, Mr. M Bansinath, and Ms. Hema S Iyer, joined the faculty ranks. Following their departure, a group of M Pharm-qualified teachers assumed roles, including Mr. Ravindranath Shanbhag, Ms. Padma GM Rao, Mr. KVSRG Prasad, Mr. C Mallikarjuna Rao, Dr. Hrishikeshavan, and Ms. J Prathiba. Furthermore, faculty members with MD in Pharmacology actively contributed to M Pharm and PhD teaching and mentoring. Notably, the late Mr. Kiran Shankar, who later became the Vice President of Marketing at Wintac, Bengaluru, held the distinction of being the first student to achieve an M Pharm in Pharmacology from the department.

Manipal College of Pharmaceutical Sciences officially established its independent pharmacology department on November 1, 2001. This development transpired as faculty members previously associated with pharmacy programs at KMC were transferred to MCOPS. Dr. Ravindranath Shanbhag assumed the inaugural leadership of the newly formed department, paving the way for subsequent leaders.

Dr. C Mallikarjuna Rao, the current Principal of MCOPS, succeeded Dr. Shanbhag and held the helm for a decade. Following his tenure, Dr. K Sreedhar R Pai led the department from 2014 to 2021. Presently, Dr. K Nandakumar heads the department, steering its growth and development.

Since its integration into MCOPS, the department has witnessed significant expansion in both faculty and infrastructure. Prominent professors such as Dr. N Gopalan Kutty and Dr. MK Unnikrishnan played pivotal roles in mentoring the present faculty. The department currently boasts ten faculty members, all holding doctoral degrees, and is supported by a dedicated supporting staff of seven. Twenty-five full-time research scholars are actively pursuing their PhD within its spacious four-storeyed facility.

Named after illustrious former professors — Bopardikar, Guruswami, and Kulkarni — the three big laboratories cater to B Pharm, M Pharm-I practical, and M Pharm-II research. Equipped for both isolated tissue and simple in vivo experiments, these labs house premier instruments, including a Ugo Basile plethysmometer, analgesiometer, Hargreaves apparatus, Power Lab, and more. The instrument room features sophisticated equipment like a flow cytometer, gel documentation system, Trans Blot (for Western Blot), real-time PCR system, CO₂ incubator, HPLC, fluorescent microscope, inverted microscope, UV spectrophotometer, microplate reader, acquired through grants secured by faculty.

Pharmacology is integral to the curriculum for B Pharm students in their third and final years, while Pharm D students receive instruction in the second and third years. Moreover, the department handles physiology for first-year B Pharm and Pharm D students.

The department's research prowess is underscored by its first publication in the esteemed Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences. The pioneering work by Ramabadran K, Bansinath M, and Guruswami MN on the anticonvulsant activity of enzyme inhibitors in rats was published in 1976, marking a significant milestone in the department's academic journey. 

Program

MPharm Pharmacology

This is a two-year program comprising four semesters designed to provide advanced training in various aspects of pharmacology, molecular biology, pre-clinical & clinical drug development and pharmacotherapeutics. There are excellent experiments to be carried out in each of these areas, which equip the student with skills for research. The program has tremendous scope and students who emerge successfully have various career options. They are a much sought-after tribe in academia and industry. They can enter the teaching profession, find employment in pharmaceutical companies in R&D, clinical research organizations, medical writing as well as in research.

The department has succeeded in finding suitable employment for those who have completed MPharm. Many of our alumni are very well placed, either in India or abroad.

The annual intake of MPharm Pharmacology branch is fifteen students.

MPharm Pharmacology Programme Educational Objectives [PEOs]

MPharm Pharmacology Programme Outcomes [POs]

MPharm Pharmacology Course Outcomes [COs]

Click to view Regulations for MPharm Pharmacology programme

Why Pharmacology as a career option?

Pharmacology is a subject, which connects the other disciplines of pharmaceutical sciences with medicine. This branch of science equips a student with the ability to appreciate the establishment of dose, dosage, efficacy, and safety of medicines, their mechanisms, and disposition. Pharmacology gives immense scope for exploration into diversified subdomains such as signaling and molecular mechanisms of medicines, clinical pharmacology and biopharmaceutics, non-clinical and clinical trials. This opens up opportunities for further academic upgradation, sometimes with funded research projects of national importance supported by government funding agencies.

The pharmaceutical industry, especially clinical research organizations offers a variety of career opportunities in different business verticals such as basic pharmacological research, pre-clinical toxicology, clinical pharmacology, quality assurance and compliance, medical/scientific writing, pharmacovigilance, marketing (scientific/product management) and many more…

Course Training for MPharm

The department imparts training in the following subjects which facilitates the students to build their theoretical and practical knowledge

Semester I [Part-1]

• PQA-MPL101T: Modern Pharmaceutical Analytical Techniques
• PHA-MPL102T: Advanced Pharmacology-I
• PHA-MPL103T: Pharmacological and Toxicological Screening Methods-I
• PHA-MPL104T: Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology
• PHA-MPL105P: Pharmacology Practical-I
• PHA-MPL106S: Seminar

Semester II [Part-1]

• PHA-MPL201T: Advanced Pharmacology-II
• PHA-MPL202T: Pharmacological and Toxicological Screening Methods-II
• PHA-MPL203T: Principles of Drug Discovery
• PHA-MPL204T: Clinical Research and Pharmacovigilance
• PHA-MPL205P: Pharmacology Practical-II
• PHA-MPL206S: Seminar

Semesters III and IV [Part-2]

• PHA-MRM301T: Research Methodology and Biostatistics
• MJC 302P: Journal Club
• MRW 401P: Research work**

**Research work for projects on various topics like:

• Toxicity studies
• Screening of new chemical entities for pharmacological activities
• In-vitro and in-vivo experiments
• Elucidation of cellular and molecular mechanisms
• Drug interactions
• Pharmacokinetic studies

Students have undergone internships during MPharm Part-2 at Novartis, Novo Nordisk, GSK, Aurigene, Dr. Reddy’s, etc

Job options

• Preclinical in-vitro/in-vivo Research
• Clinical Case Manager
• Clinical Case & Data Analyst
• Clinical Research Associate
• Scientific Communications
• Medical Writing
• Regulatory Prototyping
• Regulatory Specialist in Clinical Research/Healthcare/Consumer Products/Patient Services/Quality & Compliance
• Drug Safety Associate
• Pharmacovigilance
• Business Analyst
• Business Development Officer
• Academia

Further opportunities

• MPharm students can pursue PhD, both in India and abroad
• Junior research fellow [JRF] in Government of India funded and industrial projects

Core Competencies

• Tissue-based experiments
• Animal handling
• In-vivo and in-vitro pharmacological experimentation
• Academic pre-requisites of clinical research

Key Features

• Finest infrastructure with sophisticated and well-equipped laboratories.
• Hands-on training in-vitro and in-vivo experimental pharmacology.
• Full-fledged cell culture lab (Western blotting, PCR, flow cytometry, cell analyzer).
• Technical skills in instrument handling (HPLC, Electrophoresis, Fluorescent imaging).
• Industry sponsored projects to provide a rich experience to research scholars and MPharm students.

Research

The Department of Pharmacology has top-drawer facilities for research. Research in cancer, metabolic disorders, inflammatory diseases, chemoprevention, wound healing and tissue repair, neuro-pharmacology, diabetes, and psycho-pharmacology is being carried out in the department. Faculty, research scholars and postgraduate students are actively involved in research projects. A number of projects have received funding from AICTE, DBT, and DST. The department has developed tie-up with several industries to undertake work on their drugs and formulations. This is a win-win situation for the department as well as the company concerned. This also has paved the way for young MPharm degree holders to get a footing in research along with some financial assistance. Many of these candidates later get the opportunity to get into full-scale research leading to PhD. The Department of Pharmacology has thus helped many a candidate to work for the doctoral degree.

Browse the following link to view publications 

https://manipal.pure.elsevier.com/en/organisations/department-of-pharmacology-manipal-college-of-pharmaceutical-scie/publications/ 

Collaborations

• Harvard University and Molecular Neurotherapy and Imaging Laboratory in the departments of Radiology and Neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital.
• Griffith University, Australia
• Enovate Bio Life, Mumbai
• Wyoming University, USA
• Indus Biotech, Pune

• Eli Lilly & Company (India) Pvt. Ltd.
• GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals Ltd
• Novartis India Ltd.
• SolutionEC Private Ltd.
• Clarivate Analytics
• Parexel International India
• Merck India
• Indegene Pvt. Ltd.
• Springer Nature Technology and Publishing Solutions
• Navya Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

Department of Pharmacology, MCOPS has best-in-class facilities for students of all constituent institutes