Master en sciences pharmaceutiques

Since 2020, the University of Namur has been organizing the master's degree in pharmaceutical sciences in co-graduation with UCLouvain.

After more than 50 years of teaching and research in the pharmaceutical field, UNamur is rolling out its range of training courses and, from September 2020, will be offering the full pharmacy curriculum.

The Master's degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences, organized as a joint degree with UCLouvain, unites the strengths and expertise of the two universities to make you specialists in drug treatments and health products.

Master en sciences pharmaceutiques

Your objectives

  • responsibly dispense medicines and health products, draw up patients' care plans and monitor their medication;
  • inform and counsel patients to promote the correct and rational use of medicines and other health products, and encourage the adoption of a healthy lifestyle (to the benefit of public health);
  • make officinal and magistral preparations, understand the design and development process in industry ;
  • attest to the quality of medicinal products by ensuring their traceability during the production, transport, transfer and storage stages;
  • assure scientific and regulatory monitoring relating to the safe use of drugs (pharmacovigilance) and update patients' pharmaceutical records (drug interactions, intolerances, allergies, adverse effects, contraindications....);
  • adapt your communication to your interlocutor and establish a relationship of trust with patients;
  • respect the ethical principles (conscientiousness, deontology, rigor, precision and respect for confidentiality) and regulations inherent to the profession of pharmacist;
  • communicate with other players in the scientific and medical world (eg. contact doctors to establish a treatment plan in the event of a drug interaction being detected, a product missing or withdrawn from the market...).

The benefits of training

  • Innovative, professionalizing options

    Original options in "Drug Development" (in English) and "Management" train you in the development of new (bio)therapeutic molecules or in notions of pharmaceutical industry and pharmacy management.

  • Special facilities in a university on a human scale

    In the heart of the city of Namur, you benefit from facilities specially dedicated to future pharmacists: galenic laboratory, didactic pharmacy, practical work room, amphitheater, study space...

  • A co-graduation

    You benefit from the teaching of expert professors from the University of Namur and UCLouvain and are graduates of both universities. An added bonus for your CV and your training!

The program

Organized over two years mainly on the campus of the University of Namur, the Master's degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences trains future drug specialists.

This interdisciplinary program involves theoretical courses, practical and directed work, and simulation seminars. It provides the rigorous scientific foundations for solving concrete problems encountered in the various professional orientations of pharmacists; in the dispensary, in a research laboratory or in industry.

In fine, it aims to promote excellence in the practice of the profession for the benefit of public health.

Depending on the direction you give your program, you choose a finality and an option.

The in-depth finality prepares you for the profession of researcher, in particular by developing a research project in pharmaceutical sciences in a private or university laboratory, in Belgium or abroad.

You complete a practical dissertation linked to your research topic in the laboratory.

Options

  • "drug development: non-clinical and clinical" - organized at the University of Namur and taught in English - to discover all the stages involved in developing a new molecule for therapeutic use and develop your knowledge at scientific and regulatory levels for a future career in industry;
  • "management" -organized at the University of Namur - to acquire management skills useful in most professional outlets. Particular attention is devoted to dispensary management;
  • "dispensing" - organized, in part at the University of Namur and UCLouvain on the Woluwé campus- to deepen your dispensary knowledge of specific populations (pregnant women, pediatrics, geriatrics), alternative medicines, addiction care and dermatology.

A pharmacy didactic will immerse you in practical situations to professionalize your attitude, your knowledge and your communication with patients: videos, role-playing, analysis of the work of pharmacists filmed in the exercise of their duties...

Your training concludes with the completion of a office internship of a legal duration of 6 months.

A first aid course to learn how to react effectively in emergency situations, as well as theoretical and practical training, will be offered to you as part of in-office vaccination.

Masters in Pharmaceutical Sciences

The University of Namur also organizes the master 120 in pharmaceutical sciences, with specialized finality.

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Jury

Masereel Bernard
Chair of the Examination Panel
Douxfils Jonathan
Secretary of the Examination Panel

Les métiers des pharmaciens

Pharmacy Careers

The dispensary is the historic and traditional domain of pharmacists. For a long time, all of a pharmacist’s duties were concentrated there. As medication preparers, following the doctor’s prescription, they would prepare “compounded medications,” tablets, pills, syrups from substances of biological or mineral origin, most of which were themselves prepared and analyzed in the dispensary. They then dispensed these medications to patients, assuming full responsibility for them.

Scientific and social developments, particularly the emergence of pharmaceutical specialties, have shifted the balance of these roles. Adapting to this new situation means that, faced with an increasingly complex and diverse therapeutic arsenal, the primary role of pharmacists today is to have a thorough understanding of the medications they dispense and their effects. More than ever, they are the last line of defense between the medication and the patients, whom they must be able to guide and advise on its use.

Approximately 70% of graduates pursue careers as community pharmacists. Consulted twice as often as doctors and enjoying a high level of trust among the public, community pharmacists are frontline public health professionals. Their role as advisors in dispensing medications, providing pharmaceutical follow-up, and supporting patients is essential. 

Fulfilling this mission requires solid knowledge of pharmacology and medical conditions, as well as strong listening, communication, and teaching skills.

Pharmacists can also play an important role in a wide variety of other fields that are difficult to categorize. For example, pharmacists apply their expertise in toxicology, hygiene and environmental protection, food analysis, cosmetology, dietetics, and herbal medicine, as well as in the fields of research and higher education. 

In the pharmaceutical industry, industrial pharmacists play a key role in research and development (drug development, formulation, analysis, etc.), contribute to clinical trials, are involved in regulatory affairs concerning, among other things, drug registration, and are responsible for drug production, quality control (QC), and quality assurance (QA). Finally, certain key positions must be held by industrial pharmacists.

In a hospital setting, hospital pharmacists manage and oversee the pharmacy department. They are responsible for the manufacturing, control, analysis, sterilization, and dispensing of medications, as well as the management of the hospital pharmacy. As specialists in medications and medical equipment (prosthetics, surgical equipment, etc.), they are in constant contact with healthcare staff (doctors, nurses, etc.).

In hospitals, clinical pharmacists are part of the healthcare team. They also interact with patients, and their goal is to optimize medication use (rational selection, adverse effects, cost, etc.).

Clinical laboratory scientists manage private or hospital-affiliated clinical laboratory (or medical testing) facilities. They are responsible for the quality of the tests as well as their interpretation. Through the information they provide, they contribute, in collaboration with physicians, to establishing a diagnosis of the disease. Clinical biology comprises three main fields: medical chemistry (analysis of chemical and biochemical components, toxicology, etc.), hematology (analysis of blood cells and proteins, immunology, etc.), and microbiology (analysis of bacteria, viruses, parasites, etc.).

Radiopharmacists, for their part, are responsible for the production and control of radioisotopes for diagnostic (medical imaging) and therapeutic (radiotherapy) use.

A number of government agencies and organizations rely on the expertise of pharmacists. These include public authorities (e.g., the Federal Agency for Medicines and Health Products, which oversees the Pharmacy Inspectorate), the military (Health Service), public agencies (INAMI, mutual insurance companies), professional organizations (Belgian Pharmaceutical Association, Medicines Control Service, etc.), and humanitarian organizations (Pharmacists Without Borders).