doctor of pharmacy doctor of pharmacy a doctor of pharmacy (pharmd; neo-latin: pharmaciae doctor) is a professional doctorate in pharmacy. in some countries, it is a doctoral degree to practice the profession of pharmacy or to become a clinical pharmacist. in many countries, people with their doctor of pharmacy are allowed to practice independently and can prescribe drugs directly to patients. a pharmd program has significant experiential and/or clinical education components in introductory and advanced levels for the safe and effective use of drugs. experiential education prepares graduates to be practice-ready, as they already have spent a significant amount of time training in areas of direct patient care and research. africa algeria in algeria, doctor of pharmacy degree replaced the state's diploma of pharmacist in 2011, thus concepts on clinical pharmacy and pharmaceutical care were taught for the first time. algeria has 01 faculty of pharmacy (university of algiers 1) and 08 pharmacy department (university of batna 2, university of blida 1, university of tlemcen, university of tizi ouzzou, university of sétif 1, university of sidi bel abbes, university of annaba, university of constantine 3). egypt pharmd is a professional degree in pharmaceutical sciences and according to newly adopted educational advancements, it is the minimum requirement to be licensed as a pharmacist in egypt, the curriculum consists of 6 years ( 5 years of pharmaceutical & clinical studies followed by 1 year of clinical internships ), this program is intended for students who have graduated from high school. as for the pharmacists with a bachelor of pharmaceutical sciences who graduated before the decree of the new law, there is a postgraduate pharmd offered by many faculties of pharmacy for pharmacists, the duration of the program consists of two calendar years. the first year consists of many didactic courses covering topics such as pharmacotherapy, pharmacokinetics, and pharmaceutical care of many diseases. the second year consists of clinical rotations in different specialties including ambulatory care, oncology, cardiology, nephrology, pediatrics, and others. some of the universities that offer this degree include cairo university, ain shams university, mansoura university, tanta university, alexandria university, beni- suef university and galala university. ghana pharmd is a 6-year course offered in ghana from the academic year 2012/2013, initially by the kwame nkrumah university of science and technology (knust). it leads to the award of the doctor of pharmacy certificate making one eligible to qualify, register and operate as a licensed pharmacist. an aggregate of 06 in the wassce results is currently the acceptable cut-off point. also, a year top-up program was rolled out in the 2017/18 academic year for practicing pharmacists with the b.pharm(bachelor of pharmacy) qualification to obtain the pharm.d qualification which will soon become the minimum degree for licensure. the university of health and allied sciences (uhas) - volta region (2016/17 academic year), the university of ghana - legon, entrance university college of health sciences - spintex and central university (ghana) - miotso (in 2018/19 academic year) the university for development studies-uds, tamale(2018/19 academic year), have also rolled out the pharm.d program. the first graduating group of the pharm.d course in ghana graduated in 2018. morocco pharmd is a program offered at the faculty of medicine and pharmacy of rabat. and the faculty of medicine and pharmacy of casablanca. in morocco, pharm.d studies can only be accessed through a competitive examination ("concours", with numerus clausus) happening at the start of the first year of health studies. all candidates hold a scientific baccalaureate from the equivalent to high schools (lycée). about a 100 students are accepted every year. in order to obtain the state diploma of "doctor of pharmacy", studies last a minimum of six years, or 11 years for students choosing residency (hospital/clinical pharmacy, pharmaceutical industry or medical biology). it is accessible through another two competitive exams, even more selective. the first (internat) is accessible in the start of the sixth year, it grants residency after two years of internship and after the student defends their thesis. the second (résidanat) is accessible after obtaining the doctorate. residency lasts four years and gives another diploma of specialist like in medicine (des for "diplôme d'études spécialisées" ). nigeria presently, there are only five universities in nigeria offering the doctor of pharmacy (pharmd.) program. these are the university of benin, benin city, bayero university, kano, university of nigeria, nsukka, university of jos, university of ilorin, and university of ibadan. the university of benin (uniben) commenced the program in 2001 following the approval given for the commencement of the program by the regulatory government agency for pharmacy education and practice in the country, pharmacists council of nigeria (pcn). however, it was not until 2016 that the overall regulatory government agency for all university degree programs in the country, national universities commission (nuc), formally approved the pharmd degree program. like other universities approved for pharmd program in nigeria, the pharmd in uniben is a six-year undergraduate program. upon successful completion of the program in uniben, students are awarded both the bachelor of pharmacy (bpharm) degree and the doctor of pharmacy (pharmd) degree. prior to the commencement of the program, the university offered a five-year bpharm degree program which commenced in 1970. in the pharmd program, students are given extensive didactic preclinical/professional clinical preparation as well as clinical training (including pharmaceutical care) in different hospitals and community pharmacies. students are prepared to have knowledge on patients counseling, drug information, pharmaceutical care, adverse drug reaction reporting, pharmacovigilance and much more. pharmacy council of nigeria and the national professional body of pharmacists, pharmaceutical society of nigeria (psn), have envisaged that in the near future, pharmd degree will become the minimum educational qualification for the registration/licensing of fresh graduates of nigeria's pharmacy schools for practice in the country. through the efforts of the pcn, most pharmacy schools in nigeria are now intensifying their preparations to commence the pharmd degree program. south africa since 2006, pharm.d is a post-graduate course being offered by rhodes university. tunisia the pharmd program has been available in tunisia since 1975. there is only one faculty in tunisia that provides education for pharmd ; faculty of pharmacy of monastir. it is a diverse program focusing on pharmaceutical sciences, chemistry and biology along with marketing and management. it can have two minors : biological pharmacy and industrial pharmacy. asia bangladesh at present a five-year professional degree is offered in various public universities in bangladesh. previously, it was a four-year degree (graduation) and a one-year degree (post-graduation) in pharmacy is offered in numerous universities of bangladesh. the study material is taught in english. the textbooks, exams as well as thesis are also provided in english. the universities are the university of dhaka since 1964, jahangirnagar university since 1982, university of chittagong, rajshahi university, khulna university, jagannath university, pabna university of science & technology, jessore university of science & technology and noakhali science & technology university. all of these are government universities. there are also 20 private universities in bangladesh offering pharmacy education. among them gono bishwabidyalay, bgc trust university bangladesh (bgctub), southeast university (seu), east west university, northern university bangladesh since 2003, daffodil international university , university of science and technology chittagong (ustc), stamford university bangladesh (sub), manarat international university (miu),dhaka international university (diu), the university of asia pacific, international islamic university chittagong, north south university, asa university bangladesh (asaub), city university (cu) and university of development alternative (uoda),bangladesh university(bu) are the top rated private universities. it is the best for home and abroad students. the b.pharm. is completed in 4 years and the m.pharm. in one year. pharmacy council of bangladesh (pcb) is the professional regulatory authority for pharmacists in bangladesh. india pharmd course introduced by the government of india and pharmacy council of india in 2008. the pharm.d program is a post-graduate professional doctorate of 6 years which includes 5 years of study and 1 year of internship or residency. it was introduced to improve clinical pharmacy services in india and it is the only pharmacy service which is in direct contact with patient health care system. the first batch of pharm.d post baccalaureate students graduated in august 2011 and 1st regular batch graduated in june 2014. the pharm.d degree requires five years of classroom and hospital based didactic study (two years didactic post-baccalaureate course), followed by one year of internship training in hospitals in addition to ongoing practicals and research project. with reference to clarification on pharm.d qualification, it is clarified to all universities that pharm.d is a post graduate degree and passing students can directly register for ph.d. from 2012. pharm.d is approved by pci only and mci do not recognize this course in india. after the amendment in august 2019,it is compulsory for hospitals to develop dic(drug information centre).this dic will be headed by a pharm.d holder. another cadre is created known as clinical pharmacist. the only and minimum required educational qualification for this cadre is pharm.d the clinical pharmacist must also assist the physician and medical representative to promote the wellness and correct use of medications. nepal nepal started three years post baccalaureate pharm.d in 2010 in department of pharmacy, kathmandu university, dhulikhel, kavre. it is the first batch in nepal pursuing the degree. the first batch is now currently involved in a 1 years internship at different well established teaching hospitals of nepal. the students are enrolled in manipal teaching hospital, pokhara, college of medical sciences bharatpur and kist medical college, lalitpur for their internship of 1 year. kathmandu university has already enrolled the next two batches for further continuation of the pharm d program. pakistan pharmacy council of pakistan (pcp) is the professional regulatory authority for pharmacists in pakistan. earlier (before 2003), pharmacy degree was a 4-year undergraduate b.pharmacy (bachelor of pharmacy) that focused mainly on drug manufacturing and pharmaceutics but later in 2004, higher education commission of pakistan and pharmacy council of pakistan collaboratively changed the syllabus and upgraded the b.pharmacy degree to pharm.d. pharm.d (doctor of pharmacy) is a 5-year professional degree in pakistan. admission requirements for pharm.d is 12-years of schooling or hssc (higher secondary school certificate) in pre-medical subjects (biology, chemistry and physics etc.) or a-levels in similar subjects. passing an aptitude test is mandatory for getting admission into pharm.d program. as compared to b.pharm., pharm.d is a more clinical and research oriented program. some pharmacy institutes have collaboration with hospitals for providing clinical clerkship during 4th & 5th professional year. in 2006, first batch completed pharm.d program. philippines centro escolar university makati offers the degree doctor of pharmacy (pharm.d.). the degree requires the completion of 52 units of formal course work and 36 units of clinical rotation done at the makati medical center and the medical city. it is a 2-year first postbaccalaureate degree open to licensed pharmacists in the philippines. taiwan in taiwan, doctor of pharmacy (pharm. d.) program was first introduced in national taiwan university since fall 2009. pharmd program in taiwan is a six-year academic program, while bachelor of science in pharmacy (bsc. pharm.) is a four-year or five-year program. students taking either pharmd or bsc pharm. program are all eligible to take the pharmacist licensure exam. the universities offering pharm. d. program or bsc. pharm. program are listed below. university pharmd (6-year program) bsc pharm (4-year program) bsc pharm (5-year program) notes national taiwan university v stopped offering in fall 2014. currently only pharmd program is available. national yang ming chiao tung university v since fall 2016. taipei medical university v v pharm. d. program is available since fall 2013. currently both programs are available to students. national defense medical center v stopped offering in fall 2015. currently only pharmd program is available. national cheng kung university v since fall 2015. china medical university v v students can select whether they want to join pharmd program after admission. kaohsiung medical university stopped offering in fall 2019. v (since fall 2019) 5-year program will start in fall 2019. chia nan university of pharmacy & science stopped offering in fall 2018. v 5-year program started in fall 2018. tajen university v v pharmd program is available since fall 2016. currently both programs are available to students. thailand in thailand, doctor of pharmacy (pharmaceutical care) program first curriculum in asia was established at faculty of pharmaceutical sciences, chulalongkorn university in 1913. the pharmd program (pharmaceutical care or