About PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences Admission

PhD Pharmaceutical Sciences is a three-year minimum doctorate-level program. The program structure is on the semester system and deals with researching new discoveries in pharma or medicine and drugs. Candidates get to design, formulate and test medicines and understand its effects.

The eligibility criteria for the program is to have a Master in Pharmacy with at least 60% aggregate score from a recognized educational institute. Admissions is done on the basis of entrance examinations like CSIR, NET, SLET etc. Upon qualifying for the entrance exam round, candidates are invited for a personal interview round where one has to present their research proposal.

What is PhD Pharmaceutical Sciences all about?

Details about the PhD Pharmaceutical Sciences program has been described below.

This is a three to five year duration program concentrating on researching science and the Pharma industry.

The course utilizes other branches of Science like Biology and Chemistry to make advancements and new discoveries in medicine.

There are three research cores are concentrated in this course are: Drug action, Drug delivery, and Drug discovery

Through this program, candidates discover and learn the effects of alteration of physiological and biochemical processes that may occur due to disease or genetic variations on pharmacological response. They will elucidate the relationship between the kinetics of drug metabolites in various body tissues and the manifestation of pharmacologic and toxic effects

Why study the PhD Pharmaceutical Sciences Course? 

The reasons to pursue Pharmaceutical Sciences will be different from person to person. Some of the top reasons why this should be the career of choice are as follows.

Career opportunities: Pharmaceutical Sciences has a highly rewarding career for its candidates. One gets to work in patient care or research or teaching too. One can choose from a number of options to work in, either privately or in a Government organisation.

Increase in demand for pharmacists: With increase in diseases and pandemics, the demand of pharmacists has been steadily increasing. Pharmacists are needed to develop and test newer and better options of medicines. With a number of medicines being released every year, the demand for pharmacists to test them and evaluate them has risen.

Help heal people: If one has a passion to work in the healthcare system and help patients get better, pharmacy should be the first career choice. Not everyone has the aptitude and ability to thrive in a high demand environment like medicine. Pharmacists work with Doctors and hospitals to bring in a quality life to patients.

Stability: Pharmacists enjoy a stable job life with regular pay increments. Due to the increase in demand, existing Pharmacists are finding it easy to advance in their career. Most people live within walking distance of a pharmacy, hence depicting the need for quality medicine. Work in this field is plenty for anyone interested.

PhD Pharmaceutical Sciences Syllabus

For doctorate programs, there is no specific set syllabus like for Masters programs. Universities have a list of topics on which candidates can choose to do research on. One also gets to learn basic and advanced research methodology to aid in the research. Practice is also done to solidify the learned and researched theory. The list below states some of the common research topics one can choose from.

• Pharmaceutics
• Pharmacology and Toxicology
• Clinical and Experimental Therapeutics
• Pharmacognosy and Natural Products
• Medicinal Chemistry
• Research Methodology
• Practical

What is the PhD Pharmaceutical Sciences Eligibility Criteria?

The eligibility criteria for a PhD Pharmaceutical Sciences program will be different from university to university. The general eligibility criteria are as follows:

Candidate has to have a Masters in Pharmacy or a Masters in any Science stream from a recognized institute.

A minimum 60% aggregate score is necessary to be considered for admissions. For SC, ST and OBC category students, the aggregate score will be more relaxed.

A research proposal is needed for the personal interview round that states the research objective, process, methodology etc.

Top PhD Pharmaceutical Sciences Entrance Exams

1. CSIR UGC NET
2. UGC NET
3. ICAR AICE JRF/SRF
4. IIT JAM
5. VITMEE
6. NIPER PhD Entrance Exam

How to Prepare for the Entrance Exams?

The syllabus for the entrance examinations will different from exam to exam and accordingly the preparation will also differ. However, the following general tips will be useful for all exams.

Read through Pharmacy basics taught at the Masters and Bachelors level. No advanced material is needed to be learnt.

Knowledge of research methodology, techniques, processes etc. is needed.

Most exams have an English test section where candidates are tested on their communication, grammar etc. skills. Sentence building, sentence correction are some topics that can be covered.

Some exams have a general knowledge section that covers daily affairs, national and world news, general knowledge etc. Reading through newspapers daily will help in this section.

Past exam papers are available online. Download and use them for practice while timing the session.

What is the Future Scope of  PhD Pharmaceutical Sciences?

A doctorate degree or a Phd. degree is the highest degree one can earn in India. Many candidates work in some job position while working toward the degree or seek out jobs immediately upon graduation. 

PhD Pharmaceutical Sciences is a highly employable degree and candidates are seeked out actively by hiring companies. Even if this degree is one of the highest degrees, but if one wishes to delve into the management side of Pharmaceutical companies, then an MBA can be pursued.

Lastly, competitive examinations are held to hire candidates into Government jobs and organizations. In order to be a professor of this subject, one needs to clear these exams. These job profiles are stable with assured salary increments. Preparations take time and are attempted by lakhs of students annually.

Job Profiles After PhD Pharmaceutical Sciences

Candidates with this degree are in high demand and are readily hired into open positions upon graduation. Most  PhD Pharmaceutical Sciences jobs are offered into work in manufacturing, evaluate, developing, research of new pharmaceuticals and drugs.

There are both private and public sector organizations offering PhD Pharmaceutical Sciences jobs available for these professionals. Hiring areas where one can seek out jobs are hospitals, research facilities, pharma companies, laboratories, government agencies etc. From drug design and discovery to sales, all aspects can be handled by a Pharmaceutical Sciences degree holder.

With the average PhD Pharmaceutical Science salary ranging from INR 5,000 to INR 3,00,000, Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Amgen, CellDex therapeutics, Covance, Glaxo, Cyprotex, etc are some of the top recruiters of this domain.

Following are some of the PhD Pharmaceutical Sciences jobs, along with the job description and the average salary offered.

• Pharmacist
• Pharmaceutical Researchers
• Biomedical Scientist
• Healthcare Scientist
• Toxicologist