Department of Pharmacy

Pharmacy is the practical application of the study of the science of medicines. Pharmacists have to be experts on the discovery, development, manufacture and supply of medicines. In addition to ensuring the safety of medicines and helping patients obtain maximum benefit from their use, pharmacists provide advice on staying healthy and dealing with minor ailments. Practising pharmacists are an important part of the healthcare team that also comprises doctors, nurses, physiotherapists and dietitians.

Branches of pharmacy include:

*Community practice*. The majority of pharmacists choose to practise in the community. The pharmacist is the most accessible healthcare professional - it has been estimated that about six million people visit a community pharmacy each day.

*The hospital service*. Hospital pharmacists can contribute to a wide range of services such as ward or clinical pharmacy, residency, drug information, manufacturing and radiopharmacy.

*The pharmaceutical industry*. This is one of the UK's largest export industries and a major employer of scientists. There are many opportunities for pharmacists in a diverse range of fields eg pure and applied research, product development, and sales and marketing.

*The Department of Health*. This area employs pharmacists in monitoring, legislative and advisory capacities. Pharmacists are also employed in universities where they train future pharmacists and undertake research.

Pharmacy provides a rewarding, well paid, secure career with opportunities to contribute to the health and well-being of the nation.

Pharmacy is the science of medicines. It involves research into chemical structures and natural products of medicinal value; the development of dosage forms; safety testing of the product; production; quality control; distribution of drugs to patients and usage.

The pharmacy profession is self-regulating, governed by the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC). Although all UK pharmacy degrees have a similar content approved by the GPhC, King's has developed an integrated programme with contributions from other departments and external experts in pharmacy practice, industry and hospital pharmacy.

Research is a very strong activity in the Department of Pharmacy, covering a range of areas including molecular biology, natural product chemistry, medicinal chemistry, drug analysis, pharmaceutics, biochemical toxicology and pharmacy practice. The department was rated in the top ten nationally for world-leading and internationally excellent research in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise.