The Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry started functioning on April 24, 2003 as one of the three departments under the Faculty of Pharmacy. The department was a long felt academic necessity in this part of the sub-continent and Bangladesh in particular. One year M. Pharm (Master of Pharmacy) degree is offered to students who obtain the four year Bachelor of Pharmacy (Hons.) degree. M. Phil (Master of Philosophy) and Ph. D. degrees are also offered to pharmacy graduates. The teachers and researchers of this department are working in various areas of research such as analytical pharmacy; drug development, drug design and rational use of drugs; phytochemistry and drug screening and synthesis of medicinal and related substances, their structure elucidation and characterization. The department has noteworthy research facilities at present. Three research laboratories namely the Phytochemistry, Molecular biology and Analytical pharmacy research laboratories have been equipped with basic and modern instruments like preparative TLC systems, UV/VIS spectrophotometers, FTIR spectrometer, Gas chromatograph, HPLC instruments, rotary evaporators, Polarimeters, Electroanalytical instruments, Fraction collectors etc. The researchers of this department work in Phytochemical, Drug development, Analytical Pharmacy and Synthetic Chemistry projects. They also engage themselves in various collaborative research projects with external institutions. Post-graduate students of Microbiology, Chemistry, Applied Chemistry and Fisheries departments of the university are frequently taking advantage of such facilities. Analytical research of national priorities in the drugs and pharmaceuticals, fisheries and food sectors are also undertaken regularly to ascertain quality and purity status. The Pharmacy Council of Bangladesh and the Drugs Administration of the country are receiving departmental co-operation and assistances. As a part of the curriculum, every year B. Pharm. final year students have to take part in an industrial training programmes for at least four weeks.
