Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences

Pharmacy is classified as an applied science based on the basic academic fields related to chemistry and biology. It is a discipline that systematically studies knowledge and related technologies that is required for the development, production, and management of new drugs as well as their correct usage in order to prevent, diagnose, and treat human diseases as well as maintain people’s overall health.
The Department of Pharmacy is a six-year program in which those who have completed two or more years in other departments enter the department and complete a four-year course in the Department of Pharmacy. When students graduate from the Department and pass the National Pharmacist Examination, they will obtain their license and work as a pharmacist.
The career path of a pharmacist can be broadly divided into clinical pharmacist, industrial pharmacist and research pharmacist. The clinical pharmacists work at local pharmacies or hospital pharmacies to provide patient-specific drug therapy. The industrial pharmacists work at pharmaceutical, cosmetic, food, or drug distributing companies in charge of drug development and quality control, making contributions to developing the industrialization of pharmacy. In order to be a research pharmacist, they may continue studying at a graduate school to enhance their professional knowledge. Also, they can engage in pharmaceutical research in laboratories and universities after earning a master’s or doctoral degree. In addition, as a pharmaceutical related public official, they are in charge of administrative tasks such as monitoring, guiding, and educating all tasks necessary for the production and distribution of drugs. Government agencies where pharmaceutical-related public officials mainly work include the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the Korea Food & Drug Administration, the National Institute of Health, the Korean Intellectual Property Office, and the National Institute of Scientific Investigation.

Pharmaceutical Research Institute

Beyond the general courses of study in the past such as separating and refining natural substances, molecular structure formulas, investigating active mechanisms and toxicity evaluation, pharmaceutical research involves subjects that can be studied only through the building of a compound library, investigating protein structures and active mechanisms, and establishing high-efficiency screening systems. Therefore, the establishment of a pharmaceutical research institute that coordinates the overall research of various drug development is essential. Not to mention the gigantic multinational pharmaceutical companies, domestic pharmaceutical companies and pharmaceutical research institutes affiliated with universities are achieving not only academic achievements through basic research but also economic achievements through technology transfer of related new substances.
In addition, new drug development is emerging as a major sector of national key industries, which is a knowledge-intensive industry suitable for Korea with abundant human resources. It is also in the spotlight as an eco-friendly industry of the 21st century that contributes to the welfare of mankind.
As such, it was necessary to establish a pharmaceutical research institute at Gyeongsang National University which has the College of Pharmacy, the only pharmacy college in the western Gyeongnam region that was opened in September 2011 to act as a control tower that manages research related to new drug development that is receiving national attention. In fact, the university has been developing various BT, IT, and NT technologies. Such development is meaningful in itself, but there is room for new interpretation and application from the point of view of new drug development. In addition, in the event it would be included in the research results of venture industries, such as Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine, Toxicology Research Center, and other various specialized research institutes and Bio 21 Center, more systematic research studies of new drug development can be expected.