Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry

Established in 1916, the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry stands on the greatness of notable professors and pioneers in natural products chemistry. A prominent former professor of the Department is National Scientist Dr. Alfredo C. Santos whose work on the isolation and elucidation of alkaloids from Philippine medicinal plants had earned him numerous distinctions including the Magsaysay’s Distinguished Service Star in 1954.

Bequeathed with a remarkable foundation in traditional pharmaceutical chemistry, the current department consists of dynamic teacher-researchers who strive to be experts in biochemistry, natural products chemistry, and pharmaceutical analysis, and respond to the emerging fields of pharmaceutical chemistry and related sciences. Included in the many areas of academic and research interests of the department today are method development and analytical validation of pharmaceutical products, separation science, natural products chemistry and bioassay of Philippine medicinal plants, molecular biology, marine biotechnology, metagenomics of Philippine probiotics, and environmental toxicology.

We offer undergraduate courses which comprise the pre-professional subjects in the BSP and BSIP curricula. These include organic chemistry, inorganic chemistry, analytical chemistry, biochemistry, pharmacognosy and plant chemistry, medicinal chemistry, and toxicology. As a champion of collaborative and integrative learning, we also take part in handling pharmacy seminar and internship. The mandated national service training program (NSTP)—literacy service training (LTS) is also under the guardianship of the department.

Part of our advocacy in cleaner and greener chemistry laboratories, seminar-workshops on pharmaceutical/chemical waste disposal and laboratory clean-up protocol–writing are being developed for and offered to other academic institutions. We also maintain close collaboration with the Department of Industrial Pharmacy through the Integrated Pharmaceutical Science Learning Experience (IPSLE), a cross-departmental instructional strategy that offers the students well-rounded first-hand experience on the drug development process.

Aspiring to produce the most competent and service-oriented pharmacy graduates, we take pride in providing holistic pharmaceutical science education to pharmacy students who will become the next generation ground-shakers in the academe, research and pharmaceutical industry in the Philippines and worldwide.