Pro Tip
Still unsure if a degree in pharmaceutical sciences and management is your calling? Take the career test
Pharmaceutical Sciences and Management is a degree category that consists of the following common degrees:
- Read more about Pharmacy
Before 2006, pharmacists could be licensed after completing a five-year bachelor’s degree program accredited by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education. They are now required to hold a Doctor of Pharmacy degree. Pharm.D. degree programs cover the scientific, technical, and patient-care aspects of the job. Coursework and hands-on clinical training include:
- Pathophysiology – the disordered physiological process associated with disease or injury
- Toxicology
- Disease Treatments
- Biopharmaceuticals
- Pharmacy Ethics and Law
- Drug Absorption Rates
- Patient care
- Medicinal Chemistry
- Read more about Pharmaceutical Science
Pharmaceutical science can be summarized in four words: discovery, development, testing, and manufacturing. During the discovery phase pharmaceutical scientists may examine thousands of molecular compounds and hundreds of molecular pathways before they find a combination that effectively fights disease without harming the patient. In the development and testing phase they administer the new drug to animals and humans to make sure that it is safe and effective. Following these processes, the new drug is manufactured in large quantities for distribution. All of this can take up to 20 years.
Degree programs in pharmaceutical science start by providing students with foundational knowledge in chemistry, biology, engineering, informatics, and medicine. They then begin the work of training them to become the next generation of scientists whose lifework is to look for ways to help people fight disease and stay healthy.