EC Profiles

PRESIDENT EMERITUS

Prof. H. L. Bhalla

Professor Harbanslal Bhalla, founder president CRS-IC is a renowned educator, researcher, and consultant. He completed a B.Pharm and M.Pharm from Panjab University and a Ph.D. (Tech) from the University of Mumbai. He was associated with Bombay College of Pharmacy since its inception (1957 to 1990) as Professor of Pharmaceutics.

After retirement, he took charge as Founder Director, BV Patel PERD Centre Ahmedabad (1990 to 1996) skillfully steering the Centre to its present status. He also initiated CRS-IC whilst at PERD and is till date associated as President-Emeritus. Later he took the responsibility as Advisor and Research Co-ordinator, SciTech Centre (1997 to 2015). He convened the flagship symposia of CRS-IC Advances in technology and Business potential of NDDS from 1990 to 2005.

Professor Bhalla participated in several national and international conferences and published and commercialized many conventional and controlled release technologies. He is the recipient of all major grants like UGC, CSIR, ICMR, BRNS–DAE from the government as well as from industry.

In apt recognition of his services, Professor Bhalla received Professor Shrivastava National Award, Professor Shroff National Award, APTI Lifetime Achievement award, FIP Lifetime Achievement Award, and BCP Lifetime Achievement Award. His name is also included in ‘Who’s Who’ list of the world and he is a recipient of many Oration awards including AAPS (USA) prestigious fellowship award.

Professor Bhalla also served as Consultant and Co-ordinator of continuing education by Commonwealth Pharmaceutical Association and President, Indian Pharmaceutical Congress. He was nominated Council member, FAPA Bangkok, and the European Association of PharmTech (Germany) too.

He is credited with many firsts including Indo-Japan symposium co-ordinator and AAPS Western India chapter coordinator. An active consultant to pharma companies like Sun Pharma, Unichem, and Cadila Pharma, Professor Bhalla has been a keen social worker throughout his life.

VICE PRESIDENT

Dr. Vandana B. Patravale

Dr. Vandana B. Patravale is currently a Professor of Pharmaceutics at the Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai, India. She has around 30 years of teaching and research experience.

She has over 200 refereed publications (H index 44, i10 105), 13 granted patents, 22 patents in pipeline and 2 trademark registries. She has published 2 books and 25 book chapters with international publishers. Dr.Patravale has been active in teaching, research and service throughout her career.

Her areas of research include development of nanocarriers with major emphasis on infectious diseases, cancer and neurodegenerative disorders; medical device development, nanodiagnostics and nanovaccines. She was awarded Kukreja Oration award 2020, APTIs Dr. Manjushree Pal Best Pharmaceutical Scientist Award 2019, Shri Amrut Mody distinguished researcher award 2018, OPPI women scientist award 2015, Bill Melinda Gates grant award 2015, Best Pharmaceutical Scientist award 2014, VASVIK award 2013, Veneto nanotech award 2013, APTI best teacher award 2012, Fellowship of Maharashtra Academy of Sciences, 2011and K.H. Garda Distinguished researcher award 2009.

She is Vice president-CRS Indian chapter, editorial board member DDTR, editor CRS IC and APTI women forum newsletters. She is actively collaborating with researchers as well as industries within country and abroad and has completed Indo-Swiss, Indo-Japan, Indo-UK projects. She is executing all major grants from Indian Government focusing on product development. She has transferred about 20 technologies to industry including drug eluting stents being marketed in more than 60 countries.

SECRETARY

Dr.(Mrs) Madhur Kulkarni

Dr. Madhur Kulkarni is an Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Pharmaceutics at SCES’s Indira College of Pharmacy, Pune since 2013. Before joining Indira College of Pharmacy, she was a Pharmaceutics faculty at the Vel’s College of Pharmacy, Chennai for 2 years.

Dr. Madhur Kulkarni completed her undergraduate studies at K. M.Kundanani College of Pharmacy, Mumbai and she obtained her M.Pharm. and Ph.D. in Pharmaceutics from the Bombay College of Pharmacy, Mumbai.

Dr. Kulkarni’s research interests include development of topical and transdermal formulations, solubility and bioavailability enhancement of poorly soluble drugs, and nutraceutical formulation development. She has published 13 peer-reviewed research papers in national and international journals. She has also filed 2 Indian patents and given several scientific presentations in state and national level conferences. To date, Dr. Madhur has guided and co-guided 30 M.Pharm students and two international exchange students under the MHIRT fellowship granted by the National Institute of Health, USA. She has ongoing collaboration with the Daniel K. Inouye College of Pharmacy, University of Hawaii Hilo. Dr. Madhur has coordinated various National and International level conferences, seminars, and workshops.

Before joining academia, Dr. Madhur amassed extensive industrial experience in conventional and novel dosage form development while being a part of various pharmaceutical organizations in India such as Burroghs Wellcome, Indoco Remedies, Lyka labs and Ethypharm. Furthermore, she also worked as a Technical and regulatory professional atthe New Image International, New Zealand, where she acquired hands on experience in formulation, quality control and regulatory aspects of nutraceuticals. After moving back to India, Dr. Kulkarni was retained as a consultant by the New Image International to expand their marketing and sales operations in India. She continues to provide training and consultation to various nutraceutical companies, and she has successfully completed neutraceutical based projects for companies like Merck Consumer health Ltd, Epione Pharmaceuticals, Amicon Rx, and NexGen Pvt Ltd.

Apart from working in industry and academia, Dr. Madhur has also worked as a head clinical and Hospital Pharmacist at Jehangir hospital, Pune. She has worked in a capacity of a clinical pharmacist several times during cardiac surgery camps organized by Health Ministry of Fiji islands.

Madhur is a life member of Indian Pharmaceutical Association, Association of Pharmaceutical Teachers of India and Society for Pharmaceutical Dissolution Sciences. Since 2017, she has been working as an Executive Committee Member of Indian Chapter of Controlled Release Society Inc.

TREASURER

Dr. Yogeshwar Bachhav

Dr. Yogeshwar Bachhav is Pharmacist by training, after finishing PhD in Pharmaceutics from the Institute of Chemical Technology; Mumbai (Formerly UDCT) worked in Europe (Switzerland and Germany) for around 15 years with different start up and mid-size biotech/pharmaceutical companies.

During this tenure, he has successfully managed pharmaceutical development of several projects from POC to phase 1, 2 and 3 clinical trials. He has Strong network of Experts and CDMOs in EU, USA and Asia. In addition, he has 16 international publications, 8 patents and 30 conference proceedings to his credit. And recently he has edited a book for Wiley-VCH (Germany) on “Innovative Dosage Form, Design and Development at Early Stage”.  Dr Bachhav has been invited as a speaker many international symposiums around the globe (India, Europe, and US).  He has supervised several Masters and PhD thesis at University of Geneva, Switzerland.

He is associated with a German Biotech AiCuris Anti-infectives Cures GmBH Wuppertal Germany from 2014 and his responsibility is to deal with Pharmaceutical development of new drugs in anti-infectives segment. He turned as full-time consultant to AiCuris from 2015 onwards.

In addition, he founded a Pharmaceutical R&D consultancy firm – Adex Pharma in 2016. The prime objective of Adex is to resolve complex issues in the Pharmaceutical development of New drugs (INDS) and life cycle management of approved drugs (NDAs/ANDAs).

MEMBER

Dr. John Intru Disouza

Dr. John Intru Disouza is currently working as Professor in Pharmaceutics & Principal, at TATYASAHEB KORE COLLEGE OF PHARMACY (TKCP), Warananagar, Taluka: Panhala, District: Kolhapur, Maharashtra, India. He has 21 Yrs of experience in academics, out of which 11 years as Principal at TKCP, Warananagar.

Other than Executive Member, CRS-IC he is presently executing as Member, Education Division, IPA; Chairman, Education Division, IPA-MSB, President, IPA-KLB; Member, BOS (Pharmacy), & 48(3)(a), CRC, e-Content Development Committee of Shivaji University, Kolhapur and Principal Coordinator, WSIAC.

He has authored/ co-authored – 1 international book of CRS Press, Taylor Francis in pharmaceutical product development, 2 national books; 8 book chapters; 100 plus research papers in reputed journals with h-index: 17 and i10: 26. One Indian patent on herbal treatment of cancer & 2 registered Lactobacilli deposited in NCMR, Pune goes to his credit. 4 students have completed Ph.D. research under his guidance & 5 are pursuing Ph.D.; 79 students have completed M. Pharm. research under his guidance & 9 students are pursuing PG.

He has fetched the grant of Rs. 2 Crores from RGSTC, for setting WSIAC; Rs 50 Lacs plus from AICTE under various schemes like MODROBS, RPS, STTP, EDC, Seminar etc; travel grants from FIP, Indo-Japanese forum & SUK; and minor research grants for college teachers from SUK. For development of stakeholders of pharma academia including students & teachers and pharmacists, he has conducted many events like FDPs/ conferences/ seminars/ workshops/ competitions etc. He has delivered numerous speeches/ lectures as chief-guest/ keynote speaker/ resource person at various research/ academic/ co- and extra-curricular events.

Many awareness speeches of him in Marathi like ‘औषधं आणि आपण’, ‘सूक्ष्मजीव आणि आपले आयुष्य’, ‘कोव्हीड १९ आणि औषधां संदर्भात घ्यायची काळजी’, ‘फार्मासिस्टचं आरोग्य व्यवस्थेतील महत्व’are broadcasted and re-broadcasted on ‘Akashvani Kolhapur,’ 102.7 MHrtz. He has delivered society awareness lectures at many villages of Kolhapur and Sangli districts on ‘औषधांचा सुयोग्य वापर’. His several articles in Marathi on ‘creating awareness about pharmacy’ are published in various local news papers. He has conducted manifold events for deprived children and science & maths teachers of rural part of western Maharashtra; like ‘शनिवारी विज्ञानवारी’, ‘अवकाश दर्शन’, ‘mobile science van’, ‘toys from trash’ ‘experiential science’ etc to avail opportunities of hands-on experiments to clear concepts in science and maths; in collaboration with various agencies like Vigyan Prasar (DST), IUCAA, Nehru Science Centre, HBCSE, Marathi Vigyan Parishad etc.

In recognition of his contributions; Shivaji University, Kolhapur has awarded him with prestigious Barrister P G Patil Best Teacher Award – 2011.

MEMBER

Dr. Anil M. Pethe

Dr. Anil M. Pethe holds a D. Pharm, B. Pharm, M. Pharm (Pharmaceutics) and Doctorate in Pharmaceutical Sciences from RTM Nagpur University, Nagpur.

At present he is working as Associate Dean at School of Pharmacy & Technology Management, SVKM’S NMIMS Hyderabad campus since August 2019. He is having total 19 years of teaching and research experience. He is serving with SVKM’S NMIMS since last 14 years.

He is having total 38 publications in reputed National and International journals, total 08 International & 40 National Presentations to his credit. He had Visited Malaysia, China, Singapore & Thailand to attend scientific conferences and presented his research work. He has Guided 60 M. Pharm students for their dissertation, presently 2 students are registered for PhD under him. He has delivered 40 invited lectures at various conferences/seminars/workshops at National level. He has Filed 4 Indian Patents (2 under examination, 2 published,) and also Published 2 books and 6 book chapters. He completed one seed grant project of NMIMS & 2 industrial projects.  Recently, he is recommended research grant of 1 Cr by BIRAC on COVID-19 related project.

He is recipient of several awards; few notable awards are, Appreciation award from SVKM’S NMIMS for outstanding contribution for accreditations and ranking 2018., ‘Outstanding Contribution Award’ by APTI, 2015 at Indore., ‘Outstanding Teaching Award’ 2013 by NMIMS Shirpur Campus., Best Faculty Award 2010 by NMIMS University., Best APTI State branch award to Maharashtra state during his tenure as Vice President, 2014., Best Student Award 2000 by IPER Wardha., Silver Medal in B. Pharm and Gold Medal in D. Pharm.

He is a life member of various professional organizations such as IPA, APTI, CRS-IC and served as Vice President APTI Maharashtra state. He is also a Member of UDPS alumni Association & President of IPER alumni association.

MEMBER

Dr. Sujata Sawarkar

Dr. Sujata Sawarkar is Professor and Head of Department, Pharmaceutics, SVKM’s Dr. Bhanuben Nanavati College of Pharmacy, India. Before joining academics Dr. Sujata Sawarkar was associated with major pharmaceutical companies in India at managerial position, in the field of Research and Development, formulation development of conventional and novel dosage forms for regulated and domestic market. Several oral solid dosage forms and sterile products developed by her team have received approval in US and EU and have been commercialized. She has about total 22 years of research and teaching experience. Her research interests include Formulation Development of novel drug delivery and targeted systems based on nanotechnology for oral, ophthalmic, colonic and vaginal delivery, development of evaluation techniques for novel drug delivery systems, Translational research. Dr. Sujata Sawarkar has been Executive Member of Controlled Release Society (India Chapter) since 2014 and Secretary of Controlled Release Society (India Chapter) CRS IC for 2017-2019. She has been invited reviewer for Indian Drugs, AAPS PharmSciTech, International Journal of Nanomedicine Dove Press, Drug Design, Development and Therapy, Journal of Bioequivalence & Bioavailability, European Journal of Pharmaceutics and Biopharmaceutics and Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology. Dr. Sujata Sawarkar has received research project grants worth about 85 lakhs rupees (8.5 million INR i.e. about 1.19 million USD) from Industry and Government funding agency. She has presented about 50 research papers in national and international conferences like CRS Inc. and AAPS.   She has several papers published in peer reviewed journals like AAPS PharmSciTech, International Journal of Pharmaceutics, Critical Reviews in Therapeutic Drug Carrier systems, Drug Development and Translational Research, Frontiers in Pharmacology, Expert Opinion on Drug Delivery. She has coauthored 5 book chapters and two books. Dr. Sujata Sawarkar has been awarded IDMA award for reviewer, Research and Industry Outcome by SVKM’s Dr. Bhanuben Nanavati College of Pharmacy in 2018, Received Travel Grant from Controlled Release Society and All India Council of Technical  Education for attending and presenting paper at 42^nd & 46^th  Annual Meeting & Exposition of the Controlled Release Society  in July 2015 and July 2019 respectively.

MEMBER

Dr. Nilesh M. Mahajan

Dr. Nilesh M. Mahajan is working as a Professor and Head, Department of Pharmaceutics at Dadasaheb Balpande College of Pharmacy, Besa, Nagpur. He did his B. Pharm., M. Pharm. and Ph.D. from Sant Gadege Baba Amravati University in year 2000, 2002 and 2012 respectively. He has more than 18 years of teaching and research experience. He has guided 50 post-graduate students and 02 candidates are registered for PhD under his supervision. He has four patents published, out of which two are international and two are National. He has published more than 50 research publications in the journals of repute. He has fetched grants of more than 1 Cr form different funding agencies like AICTE, DBT, and BIRAC. He has developed in-vitro dissolution test apparatus and got a design copyright for “Robotic jaw for the in-vitro dissolution testing of chewing gum” in collaboration with Jigyasa research lab, Nagpur. He has extended the consultancy to several Pharma companies like Apex Pharma, Mumbai, Lensanto Laboratories, Mumbai, Oniosme Research Company, Mohali, Punjab, Maxwell Life Sciences, Mumbai, and Chemfields Pvt. Ltd. Nagpur. He has established strong collaborations with significant research outcomes with several organizations like DRDO, Nagpur Veterinary College, Dept of Physics, RTMNU, Dept. of Chemistry, LIT, Nagpur. He is an editorial board member of two scientific journals. He is a life member of APTI and also a Member of Controlled Release Society – India Chapter. He was invited as a resource person to deliver the talk in several National level seminars, conferences, and workshops. He has organized several scientific events sponsored by National agencies of repute like CRS-IC, APTI, IPA, etc. He has presented several papers in National as well as international conferences and received several awards for best oral and poster presentations. His areas of research expertise are Nanotherapeutics, Crystal engineering, and Polyherbal formulations.

MEMBER

Dr. Subham Banerjee

Subham Banerjee, Ph.D. is currently working as an Assistant Professor (2018-till date) in the Department of Pharmaceutics, National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER)-Guwahati, Assam. He is also serving as a coordinator cum co-principal investigator in the National Centre of Pharmacoenginerring (State-of-the-art-facility) funded by DPRP-DST, Govt. of India. Dr. Banerjee did his doctoral degree from Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra in collaboration with Defence Research Laboratory, DRDO, Tezpur, Assam in the year 2015. After completion of his doctoral degree he was selected as an Innovation Awardee in Devices at Translational Health Science & Technology Institute, NCR-Biotech Science Cluster, Faridabad. In 2015, he received Fast Track Young Scientist Start-up Research Grant by Science & Engineering Research Board (SERB), Govt. of India in the area of Nanomedicines.

Based on his research work, he was the recipient of several prestigious National and International competitive prestigious awards like Gandhian Young Technological Innovation (GYTI) Award-2017 from Rashtrapati Bhawan, New Delhi, Innovators under-35 (2017) from MIT Technology Review, USA, NASI-Swarna Jayanti Puruskar (2020), NASI-Allahabad. He bagged first prize in 2020 for BIRAC-BRTC Mapping the Change makers of North East Region of India and many more other prestigious recognitions including several EMR funds from DST, DBT, ICMR, BIRAC, SERB, TEQIP-III, DST- Govt. of Assam, etc funding bodies.

He has more than 08 years of teaching and research experience. He possesses 03 granted patents, 02 granted design patents, a 3D printed technology derived product transferred to Industry, 08 International book chapters, published many research articles in peer-reviewed international journals, with citations more than 1300 & h-index of 24.

He is an active member of National Academy of Sciences (MNASc.), Prayagraj, U.P., member of the Royal Society of Chemistry (MRSC), London, United Kingdom (UK), life fellow of Indian Chemical Society (FICS), Kolkata, West Bengal and Executive Committee Members Controlled Release Society-Indian Local Chapter (CRS-IC), Mumbai.

Dr. Banerjee’s research area focuses on Pharmacoengineering, Pharmaceutical 3D/4D Printing, and Cutting edge translational pharmaceutical research.

CO-OPTED MEMBER

Dr. Pranav J. Shah

Dr. Pranav J. Shah is currently a Professor of Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Technology at Maliba Pharmacy College, Bardoli, Gujarat, India. He has around 17 years of experience which includes amalgamation of industry, teaching and research experience.

He has completed his B. Pharm, M. Pharm and Ph. D from The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Vadodara, Gujarat. He had received UGC scholarships during his M. Pharm and Ph.D. He has worked for 6 years in F&D of various reputed organisations such as Macleods, Glenmark and Ipca. He was actively involved in formulation development of Para-III and Para-IV drugs.

He has over 36 refereed publications, 1 book and 4 book chapters. His areas of research include development of nanocarriers and solubility/bioavailability enhancement. He has been awarded International Travel Grant by CSIR in 2017 and ICMR in 2015. He is also a recipient of Research Promotion Scheme by Uka Tarsadia University in the years 2019 and 2017 and Minor Research Project by Gujarat Council on Science and Technology in 2015.

He is a life member of APTI and IPA and presently the Executive Committee member of CRS-IC. He is a member of Board of Studies of Faculty of Pharmacy and Academic Council of Uka Tarsadia University. He is a referee for M. Pharm & Ph. D at several universities and is an invited reviewer for many journals of repute. Presently, he is also the Coordinator of Training and Placement Cell of Uka Tarsadia University. He has successfully organised several national and international conferences, workshops and seminars at his institute.

CO-OPTED MEMBER

Dr. Sandhya Shenoy

Sandhya is passionate pharma professional and leader with competency in drug delivery, project management and seamless execution. She has more than 25 years of work experience and has been responsible for developing several Para 4 ANDA’s, first to file and first to market and high value products for the US and European markets. She has been leading goal oriented teams for the development and execution of specialized dosage forms like topicals, injectables, complex ophthalmics, nano emulsions, nano suspensions, peptides and lyophilized products for global markets. She has been profiled in the FDD Leaders Handbook 2017 published by Express Pharma and honoured with “Healthcare Leadership Award 2020” at the ET Now, World Health and Wellness Congress. She has several patent applications to her credit and is currently heading the R & D Function at FDC Limited.

CO-OPTED MEMBER

Mr. Saikat Ghosh

Dr. Saikat Ghosh, MPharm, PhD is working as Group Leader, Formulation Development Department (complex injectables), Research & Development, Mylan Laboratories Limited, Bangalore, India.  Previously he had been associated as Research Scientist (Manager) in Department of Formulation Research & Development-Non orals (Complex Injectables), Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Limited and research executive with Sun Pharma Advanced Research Centre (SPARC), Vadodara, India. He has been associated with these organizations for 10 years and has developed parenteral formulations for regulated as well as domestic markets. He holds a portfolio of end-to-end management of product development of ANDA and NDA Novel Drug Delivery Systems (liposomes, microspheres and nanoparticles), peptide, aqueous and non-aqueous parenteral formulations. Further, he is involved in the identification of newer business development opportunities and development of newer NDDS platform technologies.

He completed his Doctor of Philosophy from Faculty of Pharmacy, The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda.  He has completed his MPharm (MHRD research scholar) and BPharm degrees from Department of Pharmaceutical Technology, Jadavpur University. He has 28 publications with 21 papers in international PubMed indexed journals and 7 in national journals of repute (h-index: 11, i-10index: 14). He has authored 3 book chapters with publication houses of Elsevier; Springer-Singapore and Springer-New York including his contribution in Encyclopaedia of Metalloproteins. He has papers published in peer reviewed journals like Journal of Controlled Release; Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology, and Medicine; International Journal of Pharmaceutics; Expert Opinion on Drug Delivery, Future Nanomedicine (London); Drug Delivery and Translational Research; AAPS PharmSciTech; American Journal of Therapeutics; Therapeutic Delivery among others. He has been an invited reviewer in journals of international repute. His co-authored paper on co-delivery of drug with siRNA was selected as best paper of the Drug Delivery and Translational Research (October 2021 issue). Additionally, he has 11 oral and poster presentations at International and National symposiums. He was awarded the third position for his poster presentation on combinatorial nanocarriers in 17^th International Symposium on “Advances in technology and business potential of new drug delivery systems” at Controlled Release Society-Indian chapter, 2019. He has been a member of Controlled Release Society-Indian chapter from 2019.

His research interests include peptide formulations, drug delivery systems like liposomes, polymeric nanoparticles, combinatorial nanocarriers for delivery of drugs as well as siRNA in treatment of cancer, rheumatoid arthritis and HIV treatment.