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Usman Rashid Malik,1– 3 Jie Chang,1– 3 Furqan Hashmi,4 Naveel Atif,1– 3 Hareem Basir,5 Khezar Hayat,1– 3,6 Faiz Ullah Khan,1– 3 John Alimamy Kabba,1– 3 Krizzia Lambojon,1– 3 Yu Fang1– 3 1Department of Pharmacy Administration and Clinical Pharmacy, School of Pharmacy, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, 710061, People’s Republic of China; 2Center for Drug Safety and Policy Research, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, 710061, People’s Republic of China; 3Research Institute for Drug Safety and Monitoring, Institute of Pharmaceutical Science and Technology, China’s Western Technology Innovation Harbour, Xi’an, 710000, People’s Republic of China; 4University College of Pharmacy, University of the Punjab, Lahore, 54000, Pakistan; 5Royal Albert Edward Infirmary, Wigan, WN1 2NN, UK; 6Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore, 54000, PakistanCorrespondence: Yu FangDepartment of Pharmacy Administration and Clinical Pharmacy, School of Pharmacy, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, 710061, People’s Republic of ChinaTel +86-29-8265-5132Fax +86-29-8265-5424Email yufang@mail.xjtu.edu.cnIntroduction: The excessive consumption of antibiotics is a significant contributor to antimicrobial resistance, especially in children. Children are often advised antibiotics for viral infections. In developing countries, drugstores are a prime source of easy access to nonprescription antibiotics. Moreover, in Pakistan, their irrational use is an “everyday routine”. The study, therefore, aimed to evaluate the dispensing of nonprescription antibiotics to children.Methods: Using pediatric acute diarrhea and acute upper respiratory infection as disease scenarios, a simulated client, cross-sectional study was conducted in Lahore, Pakistan, to explore the antibiotics’ ease of availability at both categories of drugstores (pharmacies and medical stores) from November 1st, 2019 to January 31st, 2020. Chi-square (χ2) test was used to compare the differences in practices of different categorical variables. Multivariable logistic regression was applied to analyze the association of various factors with antibiotics dispensing.Results: Antibiotics were dispensed without prescription in 456 (59%) of 773 simulated visits out of which 425 (93.2%) were dispensed on the advice of the drugstore staff. A qualified pharmacist was available in only 164 (21.2%) cases. Of the 386 visits for acute diarrhea and 387 for acute upper respiratory infection, nonprescription antibiotic dispensing occurred in 259 (67.1%) and 197 (50.9%) visits, respectively. There were considerable differences (p-value < 0.05) in the practices and antibiotics dispensing between each disease scenario presented. Moreover, antibiotics were less commonly dispensed at pharmacist-supervised drugstores compared to unsupervised ones.Conclusion: Overall, inappropriate dispensing practices were prevalent to a large extent at the drugstores, and antibiotics were effortlessly obtainable without prescription. The quality of the services provided, especially by the non-pharmacist staff, was also not satisfactory. Therefore, the Drug Regulating Authority of Pakistan must enforce strict implementation of drug laws at the drugstores without delay, especially in major cities to help curb the felonious use of antibiotics.Keywords: antibiotics, nonprescription, drugstores, community pharmacies, simulated client, Pakistan

Iltaf Hussain,1 Muhammad Fawad Rasool,1 Imran Imran,2 Hamid Saeed,3 Furqan Hashmi,3 Muqarrab Akbar,4 Muhammad Asad Abrar,1 Basit Ramzan,5 Muhammad Omer Chaudhry,6 Muhammad Islam,3 Areeba Usman,7 Naveed Nisar,8 Abdul Majeed1 1Department of Pharmacy Practice, Faculty of Pharmacy, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan 60800, Pakistan; 2Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan 60800, Pakistan; 3University College of Pharmacy, University of the Punjab, Allama Iqbal Campus, Lahore 54000, Pakistan; 4Department of Political Science, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan 60800, Pakistan; 5Al Shifa Pharmacy, Multan, Pakistan; 6School of Economics, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan 60800, Pakistan; 7Nishter Medical Hospital, Multan, Pakistan; 8Department of Pharmaceutics, Faculty of Pharmacy, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan 60800, PakistanCorrespondence: Abdul MajeedDepartment of Pharmacy Practice, Faculty of Pharmacy, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, PakistanTel +92 3336139819Email abdulmajeed@bzu.edu.pkBackground and Purpose: Over the past few decades, the focus of pharmacy practice has been shifted from the classical role of drug dispenser to pharmacotherapy expert. Pharmacists now are more often involved in the patient care process by addressing the drug-related needs of the patients and this patient-centered approach is known as pharmaceutical care (PC). The present study was conducted to assess the attitude of pharmacy undergraduate students toward PC and various contributing factors that influence their preference towards it.Method and Instrument: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in 422 undergraduate pharmacy students by using a simple random sampling method. A pre-validated and self-reported Pharmaceutical Care Attitude Scale (PCAS) was used for assessing a student’s attitude towards PC.Results: Amongst the 422 undergraduate students, the majority were males (68.2%) and 70.4% were between the age group of 20 and 25 years. The students studying in third, fourth, and fifth year (final year) were 140 (33.2%), 142 (33.6%), and 140 (33.2%), respectively. Overall participant showed a positive attitude toward the PC. Professional year showed significant influence on professional duties (PD) (p< 0.001) and age was significantly associated with return on efforts (ROE) (p< 0.001) and professional benefits (PB) (p< 0.001).Conclusion: Most of the participants showed a positive attitude toward PC and showed motivation to practice it. To promote PC practice in Pakistan, the government along with other professional bodies like Pakistan Pharmacists Association (PPA) should work together in collaboration with global health agencies to develop a well-structured advanced healthcare system in which there is a defined role of PC practice.Keywords: attitude, clinical pharmacy, pharmaceutical care, pharmacy practice

Byline: Ashfaq. Ahmad, Munavvar. Sattar, Hassaan. Rathore, Safia. Khan, M. Lazhari, Sheryar. Afzal, F. Hashmi, Nor. Abdullah, Edward. Johns In the family of gas transmitters, hydrogen sulfide (H [sub]2 S) [...]

Aims: This article examines the outputs of pharmaceutical education with the development of the pharmacy profession and how that affects pharmaceutical innovation. It also discusses different models of collaboration between the academic and pharmaceutical industry in order to achieve a healthy collaboration between the stakeholders.Methods: The perspective, experiences and insights of educators from various backgrounds, origin and educational levels were sought regarding the role of pharmacy education in providing pharmaceutical research and development workforce.Results: Many countries around the world are currently undertaking major reforms in pharmacy education due to the changing landscape of health and healthcare delivery. These reforms must be accompanied by robust systems to assure that the quality of educational structures, processes and outcomes will produce competent pharmacy graduates in the future. It is also considered imperative that pharmacy academic institutions should establish collaboration with the drug development units, the pharmaceutical industry and government agencies for sustainability and positive research outcomes.Conclusion: Shortcomings in pharmacy curricula need to be addressed and the authors have proposed the 'TARGET' approach for the development of integrated pharmacy curriculum to substantially contribute to pharmaceutical research and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A highly sensitive x-ray diffraction technique for measuring the thickness of multiple layer thin films on a single-crystal substrate includes the integrated reflected intensity from the films and substrate. A mosaic crystal model and kinematical x-ray diffraction theory help derive equations for the new technique. Use of x-ray diffraction measurement of a AlAs/AlGaAs/GaAs double heterostructure system yields thickness values that are in agreement with those from scanning electron microscopy.