Pharmacology is the study of the effects of drugs on living organisms where a drug can be broadly defined as any chemical substance, natural or synthetic, which affects a biological system.Studies may involve gaining knowledge of the mechanism of drug action, drug toxicity, the use of drugs as tools to delineate biological processes during health and disease, identification and validation of new cellular targets for drug action, and the design and development of new drugs. Because of its scope, pharmacology is an inter-disciplinary science employing experimental approaches from many other scientific disciplines.

Pharmacology is an expanding science: fundamental research in pharmacology has already contributed to major advances in the development of drugs to treat various diseases disorders.

As we have come to understand more and more of how the body functions-and a great deal of this understanding stems from analysis of the action of drug-so new molecular targets have been uncovered for pharmacologists to aim at.

Scientists well qualified in pharmacology are required to maintain this strong research base on an international scale.