Master of Science in Drug Development

The faculty organizes two “domain” Master’s degree, namely the Master in Pharmaceutical Care and the Master in Drug Development. Both degrees lead to the professional title of pharmacist and therefore include the legally required work placement period of 26 weeks. The Master in Drug Development (2 years) builds on the academic Bachelor’s degree (3 years) in Pharmaceutical Sciences. This Master’s degree focuses on drug research and prepares you for a position in the industry and research, whether or not after completing an advanced master’s degree such as Industrial Pharmacy and Clinical Biology or after completing a doctorate.

In both Master’s years, scientific pharmaceutical education takes centre stage, with a strong focus on practice-based scientific knowledge. The curriculum aims at integrating pharmaceutical knowledge and skills, and is a mixture of pharmaceutical-technological, medical-biological, and specifically, pharmaceutical knowledge.
In addition to a number of general course units shared with the Pharmaceutical Care curriculum, the Drug Development curriculum contains a number of specific compulsory course units. The first-year curriculum includes a Master’s dissertation that is based on experimental research conducted in a national or foreign laboratory. By means of elective course units, the second-year curriculum allows students to further orient their education depending on their interests or future prospects. Students choose one of the following majors: Personalized Medicines, Biologics, Molecular Imaging, Manufacturing and Regulatory Quality. In all of these majors, there is a considerable input from professionals in the relevant fields. The work placement period is scheduled for the second year. It is possible to undertake part of the work placement during the summer break following the first year. A number of ‘follow-up days’ are planned in which the practical experience is assessed and adjusted.

In addition to the (domain) Master’s programme described above, you can also choose a Master’s Programme in Teaching (in Dutch: Educatieve Master). More information about this can be found at www.ugent.be/educatievemaster.

The versatility of the study programme offers the graduate pharmacist a wide range of career opportunities. Recent figures indicate that more than 50% of graduate pharmacists develop a career outside the traditional pharmacy. In 2024, more than 32,000 people were employed in the pharmaceutical industry in Belgium. Pharmacists can be employed in the most diverse functions:

Pharmaceutical Production and Quality Control

• Production manager
• QA (quality assurance) – manager or laboratory director
• Validation Manager

Research and Development (R&D)

• discovering and developing new medicines (research & development)
• development of galenic forms and analytical methods
• experimental and clinical pharmacology

Scientific -support positions

• preparation of drug dossiers for approval and registration
• preparation of scientific information
• person responsible for the provision of information (publicity and information)
• person responsible for pharmacovigilance
• successor of clinical studies in the different development phases
• data-manager

• marketing researcher
• product manager and sales manager
• informing the health corps (incl. doctors, veterinarians, nursing staff)

Although graduate Masters in Drug Development can start working directly in the industry, they can also take the interuniversity advanced Master’s degree in Industrial Pharmacy (60 ECTS credits) or complete a doctorate.

Graduates also find their way in related sectors ranging from (functional) food, medical devices, cosmetics, blood and tissue banks to fine chemicals, biocides and health economics and policies, in the industry as well as in education, ministries and health institutions.
Pharmacists-biologists are employed in both hospitals and private laboratories. Many forensic (legal) toxicologists are qualified pharmacists, trained with knowledge of human physiology and insights into biological ‘markers’ to detect pathological conditions and follow their evolution. For this, you can take an additional advanced Master in Clinical Biology (120 ECTS credits + three years of work placement).
Developing a career in government scientific institutions or education (secondary education, university colleges) is also an option. Pharmacists are also employed at a European and international level, for example, in the European Medicines Evaluation Agency (EMEA) in Amsterdam or the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva.

Explore the many possibilities in the carrièregids with a whole series of stories from former students.