Dow College of Pharmacy Karachi
When Dow University of Health Sciences was established in 2004, it was vision of Vice Chancellor Prof. Masood Hameed Khan to cover all aspects of health care including Allied Health like Nursing, Medical Technology, Health Management etc. In the same manner it was felt that Pharmacy needed capacity building and its rightful place in health scenario in Pakistan. This was the basis of establishment of the “Dow College of Pharmacy” in 2007.This college is recognized by Higher Education Commission.
Pharmacy is an integral part of Health care system. Pharmacy professionals ensure safe and effective use of drugs throughout the society whether in hospitals, clinics or community. Pharmacy aims to enhance public awareness for the appropriate use of medicinal substances and discourage misuse. Similarly Pharmacists also play vital roles in pharmaceutical industry to look after production, research and development, quality control, quality assurance, planning, warehouses, regulatory affairs, sales and marketing and many other capacities thereby leading to an improved overall performance and quality.
Dow College of Pharmacy provides high competence pharmacy education to its students by utilizing rich resources provided by the university.
The Pharm.D curriculum is designed to produce a scientifically and technically competent pharmacist who can apply this education in such a manner so as to provide maximum health care services to patients. Students are provided with the opportunity to gain greater experience in patient’s close and cooperative relationships with health practitioners. It is the goal of all pharmacy schools / Institutes to prepare pharmacists who take up responsibility for the safety of patients and assures the provision of rational drug therapy.
This Program at Dow University is semester based having two semesters per year. There are total of 10 semesters during five years with break of few weeks between the semesters.
The college is well equipped with multimedia enabled lecture halls, fully equipped laboratories including laboratory for Pharmaceutics, pharmacology, pharmaceutical chemistry, pharmacognosy, industrial pharmacy, quality management, instrumentation, anatomy, physiology, pathology, microbiology, physical pharmacy and pharmaceutical biochemistry.
Apart from academics Dow College of Pharmacy encourages extra curricular activities. We involve active participation of students in such activities including sports, poster competition.
Academic activities at Dow College of Pharmacy are sub divided into four major disciplines
Pharmaceutics.
Pharmacology.
Pharmaceutical chemistry
Pharmacognosy
Pharmaceutics deal mainly with the studies centric to formulation development including study of different dosage forms, their quality, efficiency, critical process parameters, packaging, storage and many more.
Pharmacology deals with studies related to action of the drug molecules on biological systems, their mode of action, side effects, interactions, contraindications, possology etc and pharmacokinetics. Most if the studies carried out on animal subjects.
Pharmaceutical chemistry addresses chemical aspects of drug development, analytical procedures, important reactions involved in quantification and quality testing of drugs.
Pharmacognosy focuses on natural sources of the drugs including plants, animals and minerals. This science includes study related to Procurement of drugs from said sources, effects of these drugs on animals as well as human subjects, drug profile etc.