What is Pharmaceutical Medicine

Pharmaceutical medicine is the medical scientific discipline concerned with the discovery, development, evaluation, registration, monitoring and medical aspects of marketing of medicines and medical devices for the benefit of patients and public health.

At its centre is the clinical testing of medicines, translation of pharmaceutical drug research into new medicines, safety and well-being of patients and research participants in clinical trials, and understanding the safety profile of medicines and their benefit-risk balance.

Pharmaceutical physicians work in the pharmaceutical industry, universities / medical schools, drug regulatory authorities and contract research organisations, but have a close affinity with their medical colleagues elsewhere.

In Ireland pharmaceutical medicine has been recognised as a medical specialty since 2005. Currently only six pharmaceutical physicians are registered in the specialist division of the medical register, while the remainder, approximately 40 physicians, are listed in the general register.