The discipline of pharmaceutical sciences at Chongqing University (CQU) has been in construction since 2000. To meet the major needs of national and Chongqing biopharmaceutical industry development, Chongqing University Innovative Drug Research Center (IDRC) was founded in May 2011. With the rapid development of IDRC and the strategic layout of Chongqing University's comprehensive reform and "double first-class" construction goals, in December 2015, pharmacy-related resources within the university were integrated, and School of Pharmaceutical Sciences (SPS) was therefore established. SPS commits to conducting cutting-edge biomedical research and developing research talents for the pharmaceutical and related fields in China. The establishments of School of Medicine and three affiliated hospitals in 2018 and 2019 have further promoted the development of pharmaceutical discipline at CQU. IDRC was defined as the scientific research platform, co-locating with SPS in the operation “one set of staff and two licenses”.

   SPS comprises six disciplines: natural products chemistry, medicinal chemistry, pharmacology, pharmaceutical analysis, pharmaceuticals and pharmacognosy. Various research  platforms have been established including National Joint Engineering Research Center for Advanced Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Technology and Chongqing Key Laboratory of Innovative Drug Research etc. In according to the national and local strategic development plans, our main researches focus on anti-infectious, anti-tumor and cardiovascular drugs studies. The close cooperation with School of Medicine, the affiliated Hospitals as well as the enterprises for clinical research on innovative drugs have advanced not only the academic researches, but also the R&D of clinical drugs in Chongqing area. Currently, SPS has a faculty/staff team of 53 people, including 38 faculty members. Among them, there are 22 professors/researchers and 15 associate professors/researchers. 38 faculty members all have the doctoral degrees, and 31 of them have overseas experience. Besides, there is one postdoctoral fellow in the College. At present, there are 1 person in National High-end Talents, 1 person in Top Young Scholar of National “Ten Thousand Talent Program”, 2 persons in National Winner of Outstanding Youth Science Foundation, 1 person in Ministry of Education cross-century excellent talent, 1 person in State Council special allowance recipient, 2 persons in Chongqing 100 people plan, 1 State Council special allowance recipient, 2 persons in Chongqing Hundred-Talent Program, and 1 person in Winner of the Chongqing Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholar.

   The mission for student training is to emphasize and realize the education of both morality and talents. At present, there are 64 PhD students (6 with foreign nationality), 202 Master’s graduate students and 177 undergraduate students. 9 post-doctoral fellows (6 with foreign nationality) have completed their studies in pharmaceutical sciences at CQU and 6 of them currently are working in the universities in China and/or abroad. 37 graduates (4 with foreign nationality) have obtained their PhD degree on pharmaceutical or related disciplines over the years and 34 of them (92%) have been recruited as faculty members or started their post-doctoral studies in other universities or research institutes. In the past five years, 36% of the master’s students have continued their PhD training.

   SPS has a master's degree authorization in pharmacy, and a doctoral degree authorization in chemical engineering and technology jointly established with the College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. There are three departments: department of medicinal chemistry, department of pharmacology and pharmaceuticals, and department of pharmaceutical analysis, drug design and natural products.

In recent five year, SPS faculty has received 165 national or local research grants including 34 national and 114 provincial and ministerial projects, totaling more than RMB 50 million. Around 50 research papers have been published in high-impact international scientific journals, such as Nature Chemistry, Nature Communication, Journal of American Chemical Society, Angewandte Chemie International Edition, Advanced Functional Materials, Science Advances, Journal of Controlled Release, Analytical Chemistry, Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, European Journal of Medicinal Chemistry etc. Now there are more than half of SPS faculty are worked as an academic organization member or journal editor. SPS organized 1 international and 2 national academic conferences. With more than 300 papers submitted, SPS faculty actively participated in international or national academic conferences. In addition, SPS invited more than 100 experts for academic exchange.