Medical Pharmacology Quick Guide

The key skill for pharmacologists is a genuine interest in understanding how things go wrong in disease and how we can use drugs and develop new drugs in an attempt to correct it.

Pharmacologists have an understanding of chemistry and biology, are able to communicate their work effectively in both verbal and written mediums to a variety of audiences, and able to work independently and as part of a wider research/clinical team.

Pharmacologists study the effect of drugs on living things, and the effect living things and their environment have on those drugs. Our three employability strands, as part of our Medical Pharmacology will enable you to develop the skills and understanding of drugs and their use and give you access to a range of exciting careers that Pharmacologists do:

• Train as clinicians - by following our Pathway to Medicine and moving on to Graduate Entry Medicine you can use your knowledge of how drugs work to give the right drug to the right patient at the right time
• Research new drugs or improve how we use current medications
• Develop new technologies and innovations to improve patient therapies

Additional roles include careers in academia, pharmaceutical industry or drug regulation.

Want to find out more information about Pharmacology? Watch this video from the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics.

Pharmacy and Pharmacology are two distinct disciplines – with similar goals of ensuring medicines are safe and effective for patients.

Pharmacology is the biomedical discipline concerned with the development of drugs and the study of the effects they have on the function of living organisms. Pharmacology today has a number of subfamilies including but not limited to:

• Pharmacokinetics
• Neuropharmacology
• Immunopharmacology
• Cancer pharmacology

Pharmacology is integral within many biomedical disciplines. You can find pharmacology present everywhere. In medicine cabinets, when you visit the dentists and when you take any type of medication.  Pharmacologists may have specialised understanding on the impact of drugs on the body of living organism within certain therapeutic areas; such as cardiovascular pharmacology or gastrointestinal pharmacology. They may work as part of a multidisciplinary team including pharmacists in the drug design and development process. They may also be involved in research related to how drugs work and how they affect the body. Pharmacologists help improve current therapies as well as discover and develop new medicines for use in healthcare. 

Pharmacy, on the other hand, is the vocational biomedical discipline that involves aspects of pharmacology, pharmaceutics, pharmaceutical chemistry, biochemistry, human physiology, pharmacy practice, clinical pharmacy.

Historically, pharmacy was seen as the science of preparing, preserving, compounding, and dispensing medicines. However, Pharmacy today involves drug discovery, design and development. It is a registered profession that has shifted from the dispensing of medicines to medicines’ management and the management of patients with complex needs. Pharmacists help develop and improve the use of current and new medicines in healthcare.

Pharmacists are expert in medicines, they are able to evaluate the clinical appropriateness of prescribed medicines, review and monitor patients, and signpost appropriately to ensure patient safety. Pharmacists today are involved in the development and utilisation of personalised medicines, CAR-T therapies and vaccines.

The study of pharmacy is like having a global passport degree, which enables you to work in community, hospital, industry, general practice (GP) academia, research, care home, regulatory affairs, prison, veterinary and military pharmacy. Many pharmacists today are independent prescribers and key members of multidisciplinary teams ensuring the provision of a seamless care.

Pharmacologists focus on developing treatments and drugs to treat disease. This career is varied and offers a breadth of opportunities around the UK and world in sectors such as academia and the pharmaceutical industry. Pharmacology is a very varied career, allowing you to investigate the effects of drugs at a genetic and molecular level all the way up to the effects of drugs on patients.

Training in pharmacology opens the door to careers in cancer research, cardiovascular pharmacology, neuropharmacology, veterinary pharmacology and clinical medicine.  

For a research career, pharmacologists may undertake a PhD. The national minimum doctoral stipend for 2020/2021 is £15,285.

Careers within academia or industry have a starting salary of around £35,000 following completion of a PhD. Salaries in industry are often higher than academia but a pharmacologist with a PhD will likely earn more than without a PhD.

Senior level pharmacologists can expect to earn >£65,000. 

_{*Income figures are indicative and given as a guide only.}   

Pharmacologists do not directly treat patients. Instead, pharmacologists develop the medicines used by clinicians to treat patients. Pharmacologists work to find new mechanisms to treat disease and develop those medicines from lab bench to bedside.

An Undergraduate Pharmacology degree will equip you with skills in how drugs effect the body and how the body effects the drug, which can help prepare you for a career in clinical medicine. Some clinicians even specialise as Clinical Pharmacologists.