The Department of Pharmaceutical Technology is one of the academic departments in the Faculty of Pharmacy that was established in 1987. In 1992 the pharmacy curriculum was modified to include new orientations in clinical pharmacy. Thereafter, the Department was re-named as the Department of Pharmaceutical Technology and Clinical Pharmacy. In 2000 the department was split into two departments where the Department of Clinical Pharmacy was established. The Department of Pharmaceutical Technology offers several undergraduate courses for the Bachelor and PharmD programs.
The area of pharmaceutical technology involved in the study of the physicochemical properties of compounds and substances that are used in the development of pharmaceutical products in addition to the quality control of such substances according to the pharmacopeias and international laws. This area of science is also involved in the study of drug delivery systems and the development of smart delivery systems that are highly efficient in their therapeutic effect with minimal side effects. Biopharmaceutics and pharmacokinetics is another important field of study in pharmaceutical technology which is involved in the study of various parameters related to the absorption, distribution, and elimination of drugs. The Department of Pharmaceutical Technology also offers courses in pharmaceutical microbiology and this area of pharmaceutical sciences is involved in the study of the properties of different microorganisms that are considered to be the underlying cause of human's infectious diseases. Pharmaceutical Microbiology is also interested in the study of different laboratory and diagnostic techniques for infectious diseases and the use of antibiotics and therapeutics of such diseases whether it was of bacterial, viral, or parasitic causes. Sterilization techniques and principles of general health are also important fields in the science of pharmaceutical microbiology. The Department of Pharmaceutical Technology offers Master's program in Pharmaceutical Technology. There are two tracks in the Master's programs and these are: non-thesis and thesis options. In the non-thesis option the student has to pass a departmental comprehensive examination after a successful completion of 34 credit hours of course work while in the thesis option the student is required to perform a research project, under the supervision of an academic advisor, and write a thesis equivalent to 9 credit hours. The Department participates in offering several courses for other graduate programs in the Faculty.
In 1998 the Department started a Ph.D. program in Pharmaceutical Technology. This was the first program that offered a Ph.D. in pharmaceutical science in Jordan. The student is offered a Ph.D. degree after a successful completion of 48 credit hours including a comprehensive examination, performing a research project and a successful defense of the research dissertation. The first Ph.D. degree was granted in 2003. The Ph.D. program in Pharmaceutical Technology was suspended for a while due to technical difficulties and no students were accepted in the Ph.D. program for the last few years. Recently, a decision was made to reactivate the Ph.D. program in Pharmaceutical Technology
and four students will be accepted in this program on the second semester of the academic year 2016-2017.
The research interests of the faculty members in the Department are in the areas of physical pharmacy, industrial pharmacy, drug delivery systems, biotechnology, biopharmaceutics and pharmacokinetics, physiologically based pharmacokinetics, and pharmaceutical microbiology.
The Department emphasizes the concept of pharmaceutical community service through collaborative research projects with pharmaceutical industry and through participation in scientific conferences and workshops to update the knowledge of pharmacists working in different disciplines of the pharmacy profession.
