The Department of Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry is one of the six core departments in the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, alongside Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Technology, Pharmacology and Toxicology, Pharmaceutical Microbiology and Biotechnology, Pharmacognosy and Phytotherapy, and Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmacy Management. The Department is dedicated to teaching, research, and professional development in the chemical sciences as they relate to pharmacy. It aims to equip students with deep scientific and practical knowledge to understand how chemical principles underpin drug design, drug action, and therapeutic effectiveness. The Department provides foundational and advanced chemical knowledge crucial to pharmacy, including organic, inorganic, and physical chemistry principles. It also explores the chemical basis of drug action, stability, metabolism, and how drugs interact at the molecular level with biological targets. This aligns with standard medicinal chemistry curricula that emphasize structure-activity relationships (SAR), ADME principles involving Absorption, Distribution, Metabolism, and Excretion, as well as the fundamentals of drug discovery. Students are also prepared to understand and rationalize the pharmaceutical properties of drugs, including solubility, reactivity, and synthesis routes. Within the Pharm.D. Programme, the Department supports the six-year professional curriculum by offering both foundational and advanced coursework in pharmaceutical chemistry as part of the core curriculum. These courses typically include chemical principles relevant to pharmacy practice, medicinal chemistry fundamentals, pharmaceutical analysis and quality control, as well as structure-activity relationship and drug development concepts. The Department’s teaching helps pharmacy students become chemical experts among healthcare professionals, essential for safe, effective, and evidence-based drug therapy, formulation understanding, and pharmaceutical research. Students in the Department develop competencies in several important areas. In Drug Design and Discovery, students learn the analysis of chemical structures and their relationship to biological activity, alongside foundational concepts in identifying new drug candidates and optimizing pharmacological properties. In Chemical Synthesis and Evaluation, students gain understanding of laboratory synthesis techniques and the chemical evaluation of active pharmaceutical ingredients, with emphasis on organic reaction mechanisms and chemical processes used in producing therapeutic compounds. The Department also emphasizes Quality Assurance and Pharmaceutical Standards through chemical approaches to assessing the purity, potency, and quality of drugs, which are essential for regulatory compliance and patient safety. In addition, students are trained in Interdisciplinary Integration, applying chemical knowledge alongside pharmacology, toxicology, and formulation science to ensure well-rounded professional competence in pharmacy practice and research. Although specific research projects are not detailed, the Department encourages undergraduate and postgraduate research in areas such as new drug synthesis and evaluation, natural product chemistry and bioactive compounds, analytical method development and validation, and computational drug design. This research training enhances students’ capacity for innovation, scientific contribution, and professional development in academic, industrial, and healthcare sectors.