Annual Convention 2008
August 8-10, 2008
Hudson Valley Resort & Spa
The theme of this year’s convention was Pharmacy Profession in the USA and Bangladesh. Pharmacy education started in Bangladesh in the 60’s. Unfortunately, Pharmacist profession in Bangladesh is yet to be defined. We all know how medicines are dispensed in Bangladesh and needless to repeat what we all know. Although there is no statistics about the impact of uncontrolled dispensing on public health, we are sure this gap in Bangladesh healthcare system is causing wide varieties of healthcare problems. On the other hand, despite significant growth of pharmaceutical manufacturing industry in Bangladesh, supply of safe, effective and quality medicines is not fully defined as required.
There are 180 plus pharmaceutical manufacturers that are actively producing varieties of medicines in Bangladesh. It is a common public opinion that quality of medicines from many of these companies is not adequate. That is why BAPA initiated this process to study these situations along with experts in these areas in the US and Bangladesh, Pharmacy Graduates Association, Bangladesh Pharmaceutical Society, and the Government agencies; develop strategies to address any gap there may be, and propose solutions to the Government of Bangladesh and other stakeholders. Proposed solutions need to be feasible for Bangladesh. So, the Executive Committee of BAPA had invited pharmaceutical industry experts, academia, and policy makers from the US and Bangladesh to this year’s BAPA Annual Convention to discuss and develop strategies to address these issues.
This year's convention was attended by Professor A K Azad Chowdhury, Former Vice Chancellor and Professor of Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmacology, University of Dhaka and Dr Badrul Chowdhury, Director, Division of Pulmonary and Allergy Drug Products, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, US Food and Drug Administration among others.
For details of the program and presentations, please click here.
Convention 2007
The annual convention of 2007 was held at the Sheraton Danbury Hotel, Danbury, Connecticut during August 10-12, 2007. Located just off Interstate 84, Sheraton Danbury Hotel is easily accessible to all the conveniences that Danbury, Connecticut has to offer. The hotel provides a lot of flexible meeting and banquet space and the largest ballroom in Danbury. It is located within an hour's drive of all of Connecticut and New York City's major airports. In addition to the 8-10 contact hours of continuing education that have been arranged for this years convention, a number of presentations related to the current issues of pharmacy practice and pharmaceutical industry has been organized. These discussions generally falls under the theme “Opportunities and challenges of pharmacy graduates in the global arena and today's health care environment”.
18 Old Ridgebury Road · Danbury, Connecticut 06810 · Phone: (203) 794-0600
Last year, we have gone through a series of discussions with selected members representing various areas of our profession to identify the theme for the convention of 2007. Following these discussions, we have identified the theme mentioned above. Within this broad theme, we focused our discussions on topics such as the licensing issues and solutions of foreign pharmacy graduates (namely Bangladeshi-Americans); acceptable standards of pharmacy curriculum, deficiencies and remedies; training and supply of pharmaceutical professionals; challenges of the pharmaceutical industry and opportunities for academic institutions; medication errors and safety measures; emergence of electronic commerce and communication etc.