Welcome to the Department of Pharmacy

The Department of Pharmacy offers undergraduate and postgraduate studies in the area of pharmacy. The department’s areas of interests include pharmacy practice, pharmacoeconomics, computer-aided drug design and industrial pharmacy. The department participates in EU-funded research programmes and currently has a three-year local national research grant in collaboration with a local pharmaceutical industry. The department collaborates with the pharmaceutical industry, community pharmacies, government pharmacy institutions and other departments at the University of Malta for teaching and research activities. It also enjoys extensive international collaboration with other schools of pharmacy and with pharmacy entities. The department hosted the 2^nd Spring European Society for Clinical Pharmacy Conference in 2001, the 2005 Annual Conference of the European Association of Faculties of Pharmacy and the 7th World Meeting on Pharmaceutics, Biopharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Technology, 2010 besides a number of European courses.

In 2005, the Facutly of Pharmacy, University Complutense of Madrid awarded the Institutional Medal to recognise an institution for significant contribution to pharmacy education to the Department of Pharmacy.

Press Release: 29 September 2011

University of Malta signs collaborative agreement with Actavis

The Rector of the University of Malta, Professor Juanito Camilleri has signed a collaborative agreement  between the Department of Pharmacy of the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery and Actavis Ltd.  The three year Agreement covers support towards the teaching and research programmes of the Department of Pharmacy.

The Department of Pharmacy endeavours to expose undergraduate students to hands-on experiences within practical scenarios in community pharmacies, the hospital pharmacy and the pharmaceutical industry.  In this way graduates have the competences to contribute to society and to the public and private sector as soon as they take up employment.  This is achieved through fostering co-operation between the Department and other public and private entities in the area of pharmacy.  

The Department of Pharmacy has a long-standing history of collaboration with Actavis Ltd.  Areas in which Actavis Ltd. is supporting the teaching and research programmes of the Department were identified and formalized in this Agreement.

Through this agreement, Actavis Ltd. is co-ordinating the design and printing of the Department’s journal, the Journal of Euromed Pharmacy (JEMP) that carries research papers from post-graduate students.  The Journal of Euromed Pharmacy is published jointly with the Malta Pharmaceutical Association.

Actavis Ltd will award the student with the best presentation during the Annual Pharmacy Symposium whilst also  supporting specific projects.  Such Projects include ‘Stability study of drugs in transport’ by Helga Farrugia which was presented during the World Meeting on Pharmaceutics, Biopharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Technology in 2010, the ‘Maltese Medicines Handbook’ by Doriella Cassar (2009) and the ‘Newsletter for Community Pharmacists’ by Rachel Galea (2009) and Caroline Mercieca (currently working on this project).

Actavis Ltd has provided  student placements for the Department’s experiential programmes in the past years and this agreementwill further strengthen this collaboration by establishing student placements and extra-mural practical sessions for pharmacy students.  These activities will provide the opportunity for pharmacy students to be exposed to the pharmaceutical industry and the different processes entailed in the manufacture of medicines. 

The Department of Pharmacy has achieved this high-level collaboration with the pharmaceutical industry through the leadership and drive of the Rector of the University of Malta, Professor Juanito Camilleri.

The Department of Pharmacy is launching a new three-year course leading to the degree of Bachelor of Science in Pharmaceutical Technology to address the needs of the pharmaceutical industry.  The course was designed so that graduates would fill the large number of job vacancies available in the pharmaceutical industry.  Students completing this new Bachelor of Science in Pharmaceutical Technology course will be able to take up job positions in the pharmaceutical industry in aspects related to manufacturing of medicines and in medical representation. 

From Left to right:  Daniel Vella Friggieri, Joshua Zammit and Sergio Vella, Managing Director Actavis Ltd, Professor Juanito Camilleri, Rector and Professor Lilian M. Azzopardi, Head of Department of Pharmacy 

Press Release: 03 August 2011

Department of Pharmacy welcomes new addition: C'est Si Beau

Monday morning at the Department of Pharmacy, the University of Malta ... together with the shuffle of employees signing in for work, a sweet patter of paws. Has the Department signed on a four-legged employee? His name is Beau and he's the guide dog for our member of staff Joey Micallef, who lost his sight in a traffic accident in 1992 but the University of Malta has decided to keep him in service as Telephone Operator and Receptionist ever since.

Beau, a two year old male champagne Labrador Retriever was designated for guide dog training since birth on the sixth of June two years ago in France. At the age of four months he was brought to Malta to train in our climate for a year. Subsequently, while his future master and friend Joey was being trained locally in mobility and orientation, Beau spent another six months training in Messina at the Centro Regionale Hellen Keller dell'Unione Italiana Ciechi Scuola Cani Guida, at the end of which, Joey and Beau met for the first time and trained for a further two weeks together. The training of both dog and owner is co-ordinated by The Malta Guide Dog Foundation and sponsored by the Community Chest Fund.

Beau received a warm welcome, typical of the Department of Pharmacy where all staff and students work together as a team. Beau has not only helped Joey be more mobile and efficient but he has also already left a very positive mark with everyone in the Department. Receiving loads of affection and rewarding students and staff with loads of smiles, Beau is helping the Department of Pharmacy continue to expand the meaning of therapy, practising what it teaches in terms of holistic health concepts.

Students and staff of the Department of Pharmacy with Joey Micallef and Beau 

Press Release: 22 July 2011

Pharmacists from Italy follow course in Clinical Pharmacy at the University of Malta

The Department of Pharmacy of the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery of the University of Malta has recently hosted a one week intensive clinical pharmacy course for 6 pharmacists who are following a postgraduate course in clinical pharmacy at the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Bari, Italy. The course was led by Professor Lilian Azzopardi, Head of Department of Pharmacy and an Associate Professor in pharmacy practice together with academics from the Department of Pharmacy and from the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery.  Professor Anthony Serracino-Inglott, Alison Anastasi,  Marise Gauci, Louise Grech, Janis Vella and Francesca Wirth from the department of pharmacy were tutors on the course.  During the course in Malta the participants had the opportunity to participate in supervised clinical pharmacy activities.  The course was held at Mater Dei Hospital and Karin Grech Rehabilitation Hospital. To conclude the course, case presentations were held at the Medical School.

Tina Visconti and Simonetta Intini during the case presentation

The department of pharmacy of the University of Malta has a long-standing collaboration with the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Bari. This collaboration includes student exchange and staff mobility where academic staff from the department of pharmacy in Malta are invited to teach on the postgraduate course in clinical pharmacy in Bari.  The department of pharmacy has been active in the area of clinical pharmacy over the past 25 years.  It was a pioneer to introduce clinical pharmacy aspects in the undergraduate and postgraduate pharmacy programmes and has spearheaded the development of clinical pharmacy services in Europe.  It has organised international clinical pharmacy courses that led to the successful training of clinical pharmacist practitioners and teachers from various countries.

The pharmacists from Bari with local tutors from
the Department of Pharmacy of the University of Malta

The department of pharmacy has also a collaborative agreement with the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Illinois in Chicago (UIC) in the area of clinical pharmacy.  Professor Alan Lau from UIC was this year’s external examiner to the department of pharmacy in Malta.  Professor Lau has ranked the candidates who have all successfully completed their pharmacy studies as being of a very high calibre when compared with students in other countries including the United States.

Press Release: 06 July 2011

Maltese academic confirmed member of European Association Executive Committee.        Professor Lilian M. Azzopardi was confirmed a member of the Executive Committee of the European Association of Faculties of Pharmacy (EAFP) during the Annual General Assembly held in Lisbon on the 24 June 2011.  As a member of the committee Professor Azzopardi will be active in sustaining EAFP’s network in joint research programmes and student-staff mobility between schools of pharmacy in Europe. Through her background in pharmacy education, she will be supporting the integration of science and professional practice in pharmacy education at a European level. Lilian M. Azzopardi is an Associate Professor, the Head of Department of Pharmacy and the Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery. She has held previously positions within other international associations and is the author of a number of publications on clinical pharmacy and pharmaceutical care. She is the editor of a series of textbooks published by Pharmaceutical Press in the United Kingdom and of a book on quality care systems published by Pharmaceutical Products Press in the United States.

Press Release: Award to Maltese Pharmacy Academics 

Professor Lilian M. Azzopardi and Professor Anthony Serracino Inglott from the Department of Pharmacy, Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, University of Malta, were presented with this year’s prestigious APV awards by the International Association for Pharmaceutical Technology (APV) in recognition for their contribution towards the success of the 7th World Meeting on Pharmaceutics, Biopharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Technology which was held in Malta in March 2010. The conference drew around 1100 participants from Europe, Asia and the United States and a very high level scientific program on pharmaceutical research including drug delivery systems, solid dosage forms and nanotechnology was presented. During the award ceremony held in Goettingen, Germany, Professor Azzopardi and Professor Serracino Inglott were commended on the strong network between the department of pharmacy and the pharmaceutical industry and on the significant scientific contributions at the conference made by the research groups at the department of pharmacy. During the 7th World Meeting work from research projects being carried out at the department of pharmacy was presented by pharmacy students Alison Attard, Ian Baldacchino, Nicolette Bartolo, Helga Farrugia, Stephanie Farrugia, Maria Fenech, Thomas Vella and Marie Clare Zammit. One of the studies which was very well received at the conference was that related to research work in innovative techniques in the development and production of slow release oral formulations. This research is being carried jointly with a local pharmaceutical industry and is supported by a grant from the National Research, Technological Development and Innovation Programme (RTDI) run by the Malta Council for Science and Technology (MCST).

Professor Azzopardi and Professor Serracino Inglott accepted the awards on behalf of staff, colleagues, collaborators and students at the department of pharmacy of the University of Malta.

Press Release:

Research Initiative: Launch of  Journal of Euromed Pharmacy issue

News:

Institutional Access to the Department granted for on-line pharmacy resource centre

Based on the department's international collaborations, CoACs of the United Kingdom have given free institutional access to all students within the Department of Pharmacy for three years to the site www.collegeofpharmacy.com which offers on-line resources for pharmacy students and pharmacists.  The site carries a number of computer aided learning packages in different aspects of pharmacy which students will find useful to complement material presented in the course of pharmacy.

Students have to access the site, proceed to the Administration section to register for the first time as a Pharmacy Student of the University of Malta using your um.edu.mt email address.


The Department of Pharmacy, of the University of Malta is grateful to the support received from CoACs.

Prominent International Pharmacy Professors in Malta to Commemorate Steve Hudson, Professor in Pharmaceutical Care

Several prominent international pharmacy professors were in Malta last month to commemorate Professor Steve Hudson from the University of Strathchlyde, UK who passed away suddenly last November. 

Professor Hudson was an international figure in clinical pharmacy who collaborated with Maltese academics to promote pharmacy education and research. This collaboration of over 20 years, included Professor Hudson’s participation in the education programmes of the Department of Pharmacy of the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery at the University of Malta and in the organisation of several international courses, symposia and conferences held in Malta.  The commemoration evening was presided by Professor Juanito Camilleri, Rector of the University of Malta while Professor Godfrey LaFerla, Dean of the Faculty concluded the ceremony.  Professor Bart Rombaut, President of the European Association of Faculties of Pharmacy, Dr Julienne Johnson and Dr John McAnaw from the University of Strathclyde were amongst the international participants.  Students and staff from the Department of Pharmacy of the University of Malta and pharmacists participated in the evening to reflect on Professor Hudson’s motivation, innovation and drive to promote developments in the pharmacy processes.