Medecine études

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.

Medecine études

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 the quality of medicinal products by ensuring their traceability during the production, transport, transfer and storage stages;
  • assure a scientific and regulatory watch 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 contact doctors to establish a treatment plan in the event of a drug interaction being detected, a product missing or withdrawn from the market...).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 dispensary 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 specialized option introduces you to professional opportunities in and outside the pharmacy (pharmacoeconomics, clinical biology, pharmaceutical industry...).

You complete a bibliographic dissertation on a subject related to the pharmaceutical field that interests you.

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;
  • "deliverance" - organized partly at the University of Namur and at UCLouvain on the Woluwé campus - to deepen your dispensary knowledge of specific populations (pregnant women, pediatrics, geriatrics), alternative medicines, addiction care and dermatology.

Didactic pharmacy will immerse you in practical situations to professionalize your attitude, knowledge and 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 6-month legal pharmacy internship.

First-aid training to learn how to react effectively in emergency situations, as well as theoretical and practical training, will be offered as part of the pharmacy vaccination program.

Masters in Pharmaceutical Sciences

The University of Namur also organizes the master 120 in pharmaceutical sciences, in-depth.

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Les métiers des pharmaciens

Pharmacists' professions

The dispensary is the traditional sector for pharmacists. In the past, all pharmacists' roles were centralized here. Preparing medicines in accordance with a doctor's prescription, they made "magistral preparations" - tablets, pills, syrups - from substances of biological or mineral origin, most of which were themselves prepared and analyzed in the dispensary. They dispensed their own preparations to patients, for which they bore, de facto, full responsibility.

Scientific and social developments, in particular the emergence of the pharmaceutical speciality, have changed the predominance of these roles. Adapting to this new situation means that, faced with an ever more complex and diversified therapeutic arsenal, the overriding role of pharmacists today is to have perfect knowledge of the drugs they dispense and their effects. More than ever, they are the last line of defence between the drug and the patient, whom they must be able to guide and advise on its use.

About 70% of graduates go on to become officine pharmacists. Twice as frequently consulted as doctors, and enjoying enormous trust capital among the population, dispensing pharmacists are front-line public health players. Their role as advisors in the dispensing of medicines, pharmaceutical follow-up and patient support is essential. To fulfill this task, it's important to have a sound knowledge of medicines and the various pathologies, and to be a good listener and communicator.

Pharmacists can also play an important role in a wide variety of other areas that are difficult to list. For example, pharmacists are active in toxicology, hygiene and environmental protection, food analysis, cosmetology, dietetics, phytotherapy, etc., as well as in research and higher education.

In the pharmaceutical industry, industrial pharmacists have their place in research and development (drug development, galenics, analysis...), contribute to clinical studies, are involved in regulatory affairs concerning, among other things, drug registration, are responsible for drug production, control (QC) and quality assurance (QA). Finally, certain key positions must be filled by industrial pharmacists.

In the hospital environment, hospital pharmacists manage and lead the pharmaceutical department. They are responsible for the manufacture, control, analysis, sterilization, and dispensing of medicines, as well as managing the hospital pharmacy. Specialists in drugs and medical equipment (prostheses, surgical equipment...), they are in constant contact with nursing staff (doctors, nurses...).

In hospitals, clinical pharmacists are part of the healthcare team. Also in contact with patients, their aim is to optimize drug use (rational choice, adverse effects, cost...).

Pharmacist-biologists manage the clinical biology (or medical analysis) laboratory, either private or attached to hospitals. They are responsible not only for the quality of analyses, but also for their interpretation. In collaboration with physicians, they contribute to the diagnosis of disease through the information they provide. Clinical biology comprises three main fields: medicinal 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, meanwhile, are responsible for the production and control of radioisotopes for diagnostic (medical imaging) and therapeutic (radiotherapy) use.

A number of administrations and organizations call on the skills of pharmacists. These include public authorities (e.g. Federal Agency for Medicines and Health Products, which organizes the Pharmacy Inspectorate), the army (Health Service), public bodies (INAMI, mutual insurance companies), professional organizations (Belgian Pharmaceutical Association, Drug Control Service...) or humanitarian organizations (Pharmacists without Borders).