In 1855, U-M was the first state University to establish a chemical laboratory, and in 1868, the College established a Pharmaceutical Chemist degree. Research was important to Dean Prescott, but it wasn’t until the appointment of Frederick Franklin Blicke in 1926 that an active program in graduate education was firmly established, and students had the opportunity to pursue a PhD degree in Pharmaceutical Chemistry (today, it is known as Medicinal Chemistry). Blicke, outside of being the founder of our nation’s first PhD in Medicinal Chemistry, is a nationally recognized leader in synthetic organic pharmaceutical chemistry.

It was with the appointment of Dean Thomas Rowe in 1951, that the research enterprise began to expand. He recruited top minds, which accelerated research at the College and advanced the international reputation of our graduate programs. Through his appointment of Dr. Albert Mattocks in 1953, a major effort was established in the pharmaceutics area, which included studying the transport of drugs in biological systems.  In 1965, the College of Pharmacy was one of the first two colleges to qualify for an NIH General Research Support award. To be eligible, colleges of pharmacy must receive at least $100,000 in NIH grant money annually.

The research enterprise was further advanced by hiring some of the greatest minds in the field, which has led to Michigan being recognized as a leader in pharmaceutics research for decades. Some notable research scientists who have made their mark on our College are: Dr. William Higuchi, Dr. Anthony Simonelli, Dr. George Zografi, Dr. Norman F.H. Ho, Dr. John G. Wagner, and, recently, Dr. Gordon Amidon. In the 1980’s Drs. Leroy Townsend and John Drach began actively researching cytomegalovirus and furthered the research enterprise by co-inventing a drug and developing the compound maribavir to treat cytomegalovirus infection, a member of the herpes virus family. It was licensed to a pharmaceutical company, which led it through clinical trials and secured FDA approval in 2021.

The legacy established by these leading scientists and our current faculty continues to maintain our strength and internationally recognized reputation as medication experts who are regularly brought into federal agencies and pharmaceutical companies to serve as consultants.

College leadership identified that understanding how to conduct research was a key competency that all students needed — they did not want it limited to professional basic, clinical, or social scientists.  Since 1978, recognizing the importance of research as part of a well-rounded PharmD education, the College began requiring all fourth-year PharmD students to complete a research project as a condition of graduation.  Something that, to this day, sets our graduates apart from other schools that do not have this requirement.

It wasn’t until the year 2000 that today’s departmental structure was established, creating the Clinical Science, Social and Administrative Services (now Clinical Pharmacy), Pharmaceutical Sciences and Medicinal Chemistry departments. While the department structure didn’t exist, in 1993, you might find it interesting to know that our current Senior Associate Dean, Karen Farris, was the first PhD graduate in the Social and Administrative Services program.

In 2024, the College of Pharmacy had the third-highest number of invention disclosures on campus, after the College of Engineering and the Medical School, not bad for one of the smaller units on campus — and to date, the College has 644 patents issued since the University began tracking in 1985.