About the Department
Kasturba Medical College, Manipal started with establishment of two blocks. The Physiology block, which houses Physiology and Pharmacology departments, was inaugurated by Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, then Health Minister of Government of India. The Department of Pharmacology has been involved in academics, research and providing support services to hospital. In addition to training of medical undergraduates, the department also offers postgraduate and doctoral programs since 1971 and 1987, respectively. In 2011, the Adverse Drug Reaction Monitoring Centre (AMC) was set up under the Pharmacovigilance Program of India. In July 2020, the department coordinated establishment of Medical Device Adverse Event Monitoring Centre (MDMC) under the Materiovigilance Program of India.
The department is well equipped, has qualified, experienced faculty and is involved in academics, research and providing support services to hospital. A unique aspect of our department is the academia-industry interaction for postgraduate training. The department research profile has improved with faculty foraying into network pharmacology, lipidomics, pharmacoeconomics, prognosis research and collaborating with national institutes. Faculty have coordinated clinical trials and handled projects funded by government agencies and industry. During the pandemic, faculty and postgraduates were involved in reporting adverse events following immunization (AEFIs). The department is involved in providing drug related information to clinicians, reporting ADRs (affiliated hospital, district TB program) and Medical Device Adverse Events as part of the National Program for safe use of drugs and medical devices.
Adjunct faculty
Dr Santosh Taur, MD, DM is an adjunct faculty of the Department of Pharmacology since 2020. He has been actively involved in training of faculty and students. Dr Taur is the Director, Medical Affairs, Vaccines and Digital, Pfizer Limited, Mumbai, India. He has over 12 years of experience in Clinical Research, Medical
Dr. Shubhadeep Sinha , MD is an adjunct faculty of the Department of Pharmacology since 2021. He is the Senior Vice-President and Medical Director at Hetero Labs, Hetero Group of companies. He has over twenty-two years’ experience in pharmaceuticals, clinical pharmacology, medical teaching & training, global clinical trials, drug discovery, global pharmacovigilance and regulatory affairs.
Alumni
Ongoing PhD
Full time PhD – 6
Part time PhD – 7
Services Offered
1. Pharmacovigilance: The Department of Pharmacology, KMC, Manipal, is designated as Adverse Drug Reaction (ADR) Monitoring Centre in 2011, by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, under National Pharmacovigilance Programme. The WHO, through National Coordinating Centre, Ghaziabad, has provided VigiFlow database access to the department for entry of data related to adverse drug reactions. There is a Pharmacovigilance committee comprising of faculty from Department of Pharmacology, Medicine and Psychiatry. The faculty and postgraduates from Pharmacology department report ADRs from Kasturba hospital, other associated hospitals and district TB program.
ADR reporting during COVID: The ADR monitoring center reported ADRs for drugs used in prophylaxis for treatment of COVID-19. Adverse events following immunization (AEFI) were reported by the department using the AEFI case notification form.
2. Materiovigilance: Kasturba Medical College, Manipal was recognized as one of the functioning Medical Device Adverse Event monitoring Centre (MDMC) on 7th July, 2020, to monitor and report, any unexpected or inappropriate medical occurrence, unintended disease or injury, related to the medical device. A materiovigilance committee comprising of biomedical engineer, hospital operations staff, clinicians, technical associate and faculty from Pharmacology department was constituted to improve the data collection and causality assessment.
3. Drug information services: Drug related information required by physicians is provided by the faculty of department of pharmacology.
Research
Faculty carry out both basic and clinical research. They guide undergraduates, postgraduates and research scholars. Faculty have carried out projects funded by Indian Council of Medical Research and industry.
Ongoing research areas: Basic and clinical research: pharmacoeconomics, lipidomics, prognosis research, gut pharmacology, neuropharmacology, toxicity studies, metabolic disorders and traditional medicines.
Grants (last 3 years)
Sl. no |
Title |
Funding agency |
Investigator |
Duration |
1 |
A Prospective observational study to identify and evaluate the adverse drug reactions among patients on antitubercular medications |
RNTCP State Operational Research Committee of Karnataka |
Dr. Shalini Adiga (PI) Dr Sadhana N Holla (CoI) |
2020-21 |
2 |
Lipidomics in psychiatric disorder -Awarded INSA fellowship (2021-22); for training in advanced research in CFTRI, Mysore. |
INSA (Indian National Science Academy) |
Dr. Shivaprakash G (PI) |
2021-22 |
3
|
Expansion of Antimicrobial Stewardship and Infection Control of ICMR in secondary care hospitals |
ICMR |
Dr Bharti C Magazine (CoI) |
2020-23 |
4 |
Role of Sirtuins in Fluoride induced neurotoxicity |
ICMR |
Dr. Smita Shenoy (PI) |
2022-25 |
Till date department has received a total grant funding worth Rs 2,40,93,588 from various government and private agencies.
Publications
1. Das SK, Shenoy S, Varma M, Rajesh R, Shankar R, Holla S et al. A Study of Potential drug-drug interactions in HIV positive individuals with Co-morbidities. Research Journal of Pharmacy and Technology. 2022 May;15(5):1960-1966. doi: 10.52711/0974-360X.2022.00326
2. Priyadarshini P, Chogtu B, Bhandary SV, Kabirdev, Magazine R. Association of Use of Statins with Progression of Diabetic Retinopathy at a Tertiary Care Hospital in Southern India. J Curr Ophthalmol. 2022 Jul 26;34(2):234-240. doi: 10.4103/joco.joco_70_21.
3. Nayak AG, Aithal PA, Kumar N, Shenoy S, Roche M. Augmented rescue of macroglobulins by supplementation of anti-snake venom with methanolic extract of Andrographis paniculata in Naja naja envenomation. 3 Biotech. 2022 Nov;12(11):310. doi: 10.1007/s13205-022-03379-w.
4. Karkada G, Maiya GA, Arany P, Kg MR, Adiga S, Kamath SU. Dose-response relationship of photobiomodulation therapy and oxidative stress markers in healing dynamics of diabetic neuropathic ulcers in Wistar rats. Journal of Diabetes and Metabolic Disorders. 2022. doi: 10.1007/s40200-022-01157-2.
5. Magazine R, Sisupalan KN, Surendra VU, Chogtu B, Acharya PR, Guddattu V. Effect of Bronchoscopist-Directed Sedation and Other Factors on Patient Comfort during Diagnostic Flexible Bronchoscopy. Scientifica (Cairo). 2022 Jan 21;2022:8643844. doi: 10.1155/2022/8643844.
Link for department publications
https://eprints.manipal.edu/view/subjects/PHAR.html
Achievements
App – ADRRIA (Adverse drug reaction reporting, identification and assessment) was launched on 23rd Oct 2019. The app was created as a collaborative effort by Dr. Navin Patil (ex-faculty) and Dr. Veena Nayak, Associate Professor from Department of Pharmacology, KMC, Manipal, Mr. Akshay M.J and Mr. Arif Raza from Dept. Of Information & Communication Technology MIT, Manipal with an intention to enhance spontaneous reporting of adverse drug reactions by physicians.
Newsletter
The ‘Drug Times’ a newsletter from the Department of Pharmacology was launched in December 2020.
Awards
1. Kasturba Medical College, Manipal was awarded certificate of appreciation under “Gold” category for active reporting under Materiovigilance Program of India (MvPI).
2. Faculty and students of Department of Pharmacology (Dr Meena Kumari K, Dr Shivani Singh, Dr Aditya Vinayak R, Ms Arpita Roy, Ms Anisha B) got 3rd prize in the Animation Video competition conducted during the 2nd National Pharmacovigilance week 2022 held from 17th -23rd September 2022
3. Dr Shivaprakash G was awarded INSA fellowship 2021-2022 for work on lipidomics; for training in advanced research in CFTRI, Mysore
4. Dr Bharti C Magazine got the Best Poster presentation award at Interdisciplinary Conference on Healthcare and Technical Research (ICHTR)-2019 conducted by MAHE-SRF under the aegis of Directorate of Research, MAHE, Manipal held on 29th -31st October 2019.
5. Dr. Veena Nayak got 1st prize in Poster presentation at the national annual conference “NAPTICON 2022” conducted at Father Muller Medical College, Mangalore in association with National Association of Pharmacology and Therapeutics on October 28th and 29th 2022.
6. Dr. Amrita Parida got 2nd prize in Paper presentation at 88th MEDICON 2022 conducted by IMA Karnataka State Branch at Alva’s Nudisiri Vedike, Moodbidri, Dakshina Kannada on 28th,29th and 30th October 2022.
7. Dr. Sadhana Holla was awarded Best Paper presentation award at Interdisciplinary Conference on Healthcare and Technical Research (ICHTR)-2022 conducted by MAHE-SRF under the aegis of Directorate of Research, MAHE, Manipal held on 25th and 26th November, 2022.
8. Dr. Shreya Hegde was awarded Best Paper presentation award at Interdisciplinary Conference on Healthcare and Technical Research (ICHTR)-2022 conducted by MAHE-SRF under the aegis of Directorate of Research, MAHE, Manipal held on 25th and 26th November, 2022
9. Ms. Aqsa Fathima was awarded Best Oral presentation -Runner up (Virtual mode) at International Conference on Biomedical and Clinical Research-2022 conducted by Shri Dharmasthala Manjunatheshwara University and Association of Pharmaceutical Research held on 21st and 22nd November 2022.
