Ranjit Roy Chaudhury, (4 November 1930 – 27 October 2015) was an Indian clinical pharmacologist, medical academic and health planner, who headed the National Committee for formulating the policy and guidelines on drugs and clinical trials in India. He was the chairman of the joint programme of

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of h ...

and Government of India on ''Rational Use of Drugs in India''. He was the founder president of th
Delhi Medical Council
and the president of the Delhi Society for Promotion of Rational Use of Drugs. A recipient of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award and the

Dr. B. C. Roy Award The Bidhan Chandra Roy Award was instituted in 1962 in memory of Dr. B. C. Roy by the Medical Council of India. It is presented by the President of India in New Delhi every year on July 1, National Doctors' Day. It is also the highest honour tha ...

, Chaudhury was awarded the fourth highest civilian award of the

Padma Shri Padma Shri (IAST: ''padma śrī''), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest Indian honours system, civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. Instituted on 2 January 1954, ...

by the Government of India, in 1998.

Biography

Chaudhury was born in 1930 in

Patna Patna ( ), historically known as Pataliputra, is the capital and largest city of the state of Bihar in India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Patna had a population of 2.35 million, making it the 19th largest city in India. ...

, in the Indian state of

Bihar Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West Be ...

, to Indu and P.C. Roy Chaudhury. His graduate studies in medicine were at the Prince of Wales Medical College,(present

Patna Medical College and Hospital Patna Medical College and Hospital (abbreviated as PMCH) was established in 1925 and originally known as Prince of Wales Medical College, is a medical college located in Patna, the state capital of Bihar, India. It is located on the southern b ...

) Patna. Later, he secured the doctoral degree of DPhil from

Lincoln College, Oxford Lincoln College (formally, The College of the Blessed Mary and All Saints, Lincoln) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford, situated on Turl Street in central Oxford. Lincoln was founded in 1427 by Richard Fleming, the ...

and joined the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi in 1958 and served as an assistant professor till 1960, when he moved to Ciba-Geigy Research Center, Bombay as a professor of pharmacology. In 1964, he was appointed as the Head of the Department of Pharmacology at the

Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) is a public medical university in Chandigarh, India. It is an 'Institute of National Importance'. It has educational, medical research, and training facilities for its studen ...

(PGIMER),

Chandigarh Chandigarh () is a planned city in India. Chandigarh is bordered by the state of Punjab to the west and the south, and by the state of Haryana to the east. It constitutes the bulk of the Chandigarh Capital Region or Greater Chandigarh, which al ...

. He served the institution as its dean and superannuated in 1980 as its director, during which time he started a DM course in clinical pharmacology, a first time for India. When the Indian Council of Medical Research set up the ''Toxicology Review Panel'', he was appointed as its founder chairman. His next posting was at the

(WHO), with his base in Geneva. His service with WHO lasted till 1991 and he worked at the Regional Offices at

Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandria ...

and

Yangon Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government ...

and at the Chulalongkorn University,

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai language, Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estima ...

. Returning to India in 1991, he was involved in various medical organization activities. He was one of the co-founders of Delhi Medical Council, working as its founder president and served PGIMER as the chairman of its selection committee, while retaining his position as a WHO consultant. He was also involved with the National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi as the Emeritus Scientist, holding the post till 2005. During this period, Chaudhury chaired the Board of Trustees of th
International Clinical Epidemiological Network
(INCLEN) for two terms till 2006 and held its membership. He has also been a member of the ''Sub-Commission in Macroeconomics and Health'' set up by the Government of India in 2005. He became a non-executive independent director of the Indraprastha Medical Corporation in 2008 but relinquished the post in 2014 when he was appointed as the Advisor to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. He has also been a Non-Executive Director of Super Religare Laboratories and is a member of the Task Force for Research of the Apollo Hospitals Educational and Research Foundation. He sat in the governing bodies of several medical and health institutions and organizations such as PGIMER, ''Population Foundation of India'', Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, and the ''Foundation for Revitalization of Local Health Traditions'' and the Advisory Council of the

India International Centre The India International Centre (IIC) is a non-official organisation situated in New Delhi, India. Membership of the IIC includes artists, academicians, senior government officials, judges, jurists, parliamentarians, doctors, ministers, governors ...

. In February 2013, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare constituted a committee, ''National Committee for formulating the policy and guidelines on drugs and clinical trials in India'' under the chairmanship of Chaudhury and the committee submitted a report. ''Professor Ranjit Roy Chaudhury Expert Committee to Formulate Policy and Guidelines for Approval of New Drugs, Clinical Trials and Banning of Drugs'', recommending significant changes in the system. Researchers acknowledged the usefulness of his proposals. The Ministry subsequently accepted the proposals. Besides 275 articles in national and international journals, he has written 25 textbooks of medical education and a book on Ayurveda, titled ''The Healing Powers of Herbs''. Chaudhury died on 27 October 2015, eight days before his 85th birthday, during a visit to

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a States and union territories of India, state in southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of India ...

, where he was attending a conference on Pharmacovigilance.

Awards and honours

Chaudhury, the first Indian doctor to receive a

Rhodes Scholarship The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom. Established in 1902, it is the oldest graduate scholarship in the world. It is considered among the world' ...

in 1955, was a Fellow of the

Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh The Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (RCPE) is a medical royal college in Scotland. It is one of three organisations that sets the specialty training standards for physicians in the United Kingdom. It was established by Royal charter ...

and a recipient of the degree of Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa) from the Chulalongkorn University. He was the Patron of the India chapter of the International Society For Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) and an Emeritus Professor and an elected Fellow of the

National Academy of Medical Sciences National Academy of Medical Sciences (India), better known by its acronym, NAMS, is a nodal agency under the Government of India, which acts as an advisory body to the Government in matters related to National Health Policy and Planning and as a ...

. The

Council of Scientific and Industrial Research The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (IAST: ''vaigyanik tathā audyogik anusandhāna pariṣada''), abbreviated as CSIR, was established by the Government of India in September 1942 as an autonomous body that has emerged as the l ...

awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award, the highest Indian award in the science and technology category, in 1969, and the

Medical Council of India The Medical Council of India (MCI) was a statutory body for establishing uniform and high standards of medical education in India until its dissolution on 25 September 2020 when it was replaced by National Medical Commission. The Council grante ...

honoured him with the

, the highest Indian medical award. The Government of India included him in the 1998 Republic Day Honours list for the civilian award of the

. The

Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) is a Non-governmental organization, non-governmental trade association and advocacy group based in India. History Established in 1927, on the advice of Mahatma Gandhi by Ind ...

(FICCI) awarded him the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013. He was also a recipient of awards such as ''Vishisht Bihari Samman'',

Unichem Alliance Boots GmbH was a multinational pharmacy-led health and beauty group with corporate headquarters in Bern, Switzerland and operational headquarters in Nottingham and Weybridge, United Kingdom. The company had a presence in over 27 countr ...

Award, Chulalongkorn University Award, and the Amrut Modi Award of the UNITRUST.

References

Bibliography

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External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Chaudhury, Ranjit Roy Recipients of the Padma Shri in medicine Indian medical researchers Indian pharmacologists Indian medical academics Indian medical writers Prince of Wales College alumni Alumni of Lincoln College, Oxford World Health Organization officials Academic staff of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi Indian Council of Medical Research Dr. B. C. Roy Award winners Recipients of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award in Medical Science Indian Rhodes Scholars Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh 2015 deaths 1930 births Patna University alumni Fellows of the National Academy of Medical Sciences 20th-century Indian biologists Scientists from Patna Medical doctors from Bihar 20th-century Indian medical doctors 21st-century Indian medical doctors Indian officials of the United Nations

Biography

Awards and honours

See also

References

Bibliography

External links