In 2004, Malcolm Grant became provost of UCL. He commissioned external reports on the reorganisation of the college. The distinguished vice-president of the University of Manchester, Richard Alan North FRS, was asked to assess several options for the reorganisation of the Faculty of Life Sciences. One was to create large Research Departments, including one of Neuroscience, Physiology and Pharmacology, from the existing academic Departments. Professor North's only comment on the options was that the proposed "research departments in Life Sciences were too big". Grant accepted the conclusions except for the part about the size of departments.
On 24 May 2007 Grant persuaded the Academic Board to authorise him to act on its behalf  and on 13 June 2007 the Department of Pharmacology was disestablished, after a century of distinction and innovation.
The academic staff at the time had three main concerns about the proposals. (a) The separation of teaching from research is bad, especially for teaching: the fact that a degree is offered in, for example, Pharmacology without a Pharmacology department to support it, means that there is no guarantee that there will be staff qualified or fully motivated to teach it. Moreover, the collegiality that comes from designing and providing a first-rate degree course is lost. (b) The size of the merged department of Neurosciences, Physiology and Pharmacology means less interaction between staff, and less collegiate spirit. (c) The changes created two extra levels of administration, so that now five levels existed between academics and the provost.
Staff were told at the time that the new organisation would be rolled out to other Faculties across UCL, though this has not happened.   David Colquhoun has kept a personal diary of the process on his blog: In Memoriam Department of Pharmacology, UCL 1905 – 2007.  On the positive side, UCL's current provost, Michael Arthur, has put much emphasis on the quality of teaching, and maintaining its connections with research.
As of 2019, UCL still offers pharmacology degrees, though within the now merged Neuroscience, Physiology and Pharmacology department.