The Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences offers a curriculum focusing on the preparation of students for professional positions in the pharmaceutical production, control, and development sectors of the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry or for graduate studies in pharmaceutics, medicinal chemistry, pharmacology, analytical chemistry, medicine, and pharmacy. Collaborative interdisciplinary research will be supported by joint faculty appointments shared with other UCI departments.

The B.S. degree program in Pharmaceutical Sciences trains students in a multidisciplinary approach so that they can contribute to the advancement of new pharmaceutical technologies such as accelerated chemical synthesis, molecular-based assays using cloned enzymes and cloned metabolizing enzymes, combinatorial chemistry, in vitro biopharmaceutical techniques, and gene therapies. Pharmaceutical scientists are rapidly changing the field of drug discovery and development. The graduates of this program may seek employment in public and private sectors or choose to pursue graduate degrees such as a Ph.D., M.D., or Pharm.D.