15 Best Pharmacy Doctoral Degree Programs for 2025

Now is a great time for students to consider a rewarding career in pharmacy. The demand for trained pharmacy professionals has increased in recent years due to the growth of the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries, especially for the elderly population.

The Pharmacist is a vital member of the healthcare team as the foremost drug information expert. They’re knowledgeable about the complexity of modern medication and the implications of natural herbals and traditional medicine. Pharmacists communicate with patients and other members of the healthcare team to deliver safe and effective therapy.

CNUCOP offers a progressive educational program that emphasizes active learning, direct patient care experiences, and the role of research in advancing the profession of pharmacy. The goal is to graduate highly skilled pharmacists and promote the expanding role of pharmacy through leadership and lifelong services in the health care system. CNUCOP is a traditional four-year Doctor of Pharmacy program dedicated to educating, developing, and training future pharmacists to provide competent, evidence-based care focused on improving patient outcomes and advancing the profession of pharmacy. CNUCOP provides unique learning experiences to our students through the use of active learning strategies to deliver our curriculum. Working with new team members each semester, students are exposed to a diverse population of classmates from a variety of backgrounds and life experiences. Students assume a more proactive role in the program as they learn to effectively interact with team members to enhance learning and practical application of the material taught in class. Active learning prepares our students to play a key role in a multidisciplinary team setting, enabling our students to serve as drug information experts, as they work collaboratively to improve patient care and enhance patient outcomes. Students who matriculate into CNUCOP must be prepared to participate in distance or hybrid learning in addition to face-to-face instruction.

Our unique and innovative teaching and learning model, the Six-Point Mastery Learning Model, allows you to focus on one core subject at a time, and our longitudinal blocks reinforce learning over the entire year. We have outstanding clinical practice training sites to develop professional knowledge and skills in various practice settings.

The Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) curriculum at Texas A&M Irma Lerma Rangel College of Pharmacy prepares professional student pharmacists to enter the pharmacy profession with the knowledge, skills, and experience expected of highly-trained health care professionals.

Focus on pharmaceutical care and enjoy the small-college feel in the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy! The University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy is consistently recognized as one of the nation's best pharmacy schools. Whether you want to live near Lake Superior in Duluth or amidst the Twin Cities' fast-pace, learn about the benefits of both campuses.

The AUHS School of Pharmacy offers a three-year accelerated Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) program in a highly student-focused learning environment. The PharmD curriculum is designed to instill students with strong Christian values, to prepare them to practice evidence-based patient care, to foster the culture of research and scholarship, and to enable them to meet the healthcare needs of diverse patient populations. The curriculum fulfills recommendations provided by accreditation standards and professional guidelines including the ACPE Standards 2016, JCPP Pharmacists’ Patient Care Process, CAPE Educational Outcomes 2013, and licensure examination content outlines. The three-year curriculum consists of the equivalent of 12 quarters (four quarters per year). Each quarter is 11-weeks (consisting of 10 weeks of instruction and one week of final assessments) and is followed by a recess before the next quarter begins. The minimum credit hours required for program completion is 183. The curriculum is a combination of required and elective didactic and experiential courses. The first-year didactic curriculum consists of foundational biomedical and pharmaceutical science courses (e.g., biochemistry, immunology, medicinal chemistry, microbiology, pathophysiology, pharmaceutics, pharmacokinetics, pharmacology), introductory clinical courses (e.g., patient care process, physical assessment, self-care), and fundamental courses in social and administrative science (e.g., biostatistics, communications, ethics, healthcare systems, health informatics, Judeo-Christian values in healthcare, medical illustration). A substantive portion of the second-year didactic curriculum consists of the Integrated Pharmacotherapy course series. “Integrated” refers to the combination of basic sciences and clinical sciences and other topics. Instead of using separate courses to teach various topics in isolation, the Integrated Pharmacotherapy courses use a model in which topics, such as medicinal chemistry, pharmacology, and pharmacotherapy are taught together within the context of disease states. This integration makes learning more relevant, encourages critical thinking, enables the development of more robust mental models, fosters longer-term retention of material, and makes it easier to transfer learning to real-life patient care situations.

USJ’s three-year distinctive and innovative modified-block curriculum has a proven record of success; its format will increase your ability to master the material while also providing an experiential education that prepares graduates for a career in work in clinical research, medical sales, pharmacology, product/process development, and many other career paths.

As a pharmacist, you are part of patients’ daily lives and pivotal healthcare moments. This program educates students to become practicing pharmacists, critical thinkers, and responsible healthcare professionals.

The challenges facing the health care community in the 21st century are numerous, and practitioners will need excellent pharmaceutical, professional and ethical training.

Our zero-6 PharmD program stresses critical thinking, active learning, and clinical experience to prepare you for practice in a variety of professional settings. The clinical portion of the program provides you with hands-on experience in hospitals, nursing homes, community pharmacies, government institutions, home healthcare settings, pharmacy benefits management companies, and other industries. We will work with you to place you in early and advanced experience practice sites that are aligned with your educational and career goals.

As a pharmacist, you are part of patients’ daily lives and pivotal healthcare moments. In this program, one of only a handful of its kind in the U.S., you will build on your previous bachelor’s degree or sufficient credits to earn your degree in just 34 months, so that you can become a practicing pharmacist and responsible healthcare professional.

Sullivan University is proud to welcome members from the global Pharmaceutical community to pursue their PharmD in the United States. All over the world, we look to Pharmacists as vital members of the healthcare team. No matter the communities they serve, they’re knowledgeable about the complexity of modern medication as well as the implications of natural herbals and traditional medicine.

We established the world’s first Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) and remain a trendsetter in enabling future pharmacists to serve patients and communities at the profession’s highest standards. Earning your PharmD at USC prepares you for leadership in the field—no matter which area of practice you choose. We continually refresh our curriculum with new courses that reflect the pharmacist’s importance as a frontline healthcare provider.

LIU Pharmacy — The Arnold & Marie Schwartz College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences — offers a six-year Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D.) degree program to prepare students for entry-level pharmacy practice.