The implementation of the Graduate Program in the field of Pharmaceutical Sciences is the result of the involvement of the Departments of Clinical and Toxicological Analyses (DACT) and of the Department of Pharmacy (DFAR) of UFRN’s Pharmacy Undergraduate Program, with a view to providing better training opportunities to professionals who shall work in scientific research and in the academy related to the field of Pharmaceutical Sciences, thus improving the qualification of professionals in the state and in the Northern and Northeastern regions.

The Graduate Program in Pharmaceutical Sciences - PPGCF was acknowledged at the meeting of the Technical-Scientific Council on March 15, 2005 and was approved by the CNE [National Education Council] on August 27, 2005, pursuant to the Ordinance [Portaria] No. 2642 of July 27th, 2005. Since then, the PPGCF has included in the master’s degree the field of focus “Bioanalyses and Medicines”, with two lines of research: Physiopathology and Development and Evaluation of Medicines. It should be highlighted a strong pioneering characteristic of PPgCF, which encompasses in a single field of focus two large fields of Pharmacy, signaling a direct integration among the professors of the 2 lines of research that make up the Program.

The program has a faculty of 17 permanent professors, one of which is a visiting professor beneficiary of a FAPERN scholarship, and 08 collaborating professors. Among the 25 professors of the staff, 7 have already conducted postdoctoral studies and 5 have a research productivity grant at CNPq. The faculty comprises professors with PhD with specific qualification in the large field, who graduated from external programs, mostly with an appreciated level of excellence, who are involved with projects and collaborations that provide national and international projection, maintaining also collaboration with the groups where they attended their doctoral and/or postdoctoral studies.

Currently the program offers 35 courses in the fields of Bioanalyses and Medicines, comprising 15 courses in the general context, 09 related to the line of research “Physiopathology” and 11 courses in the line of research “Development and Evaluation of Medicines”. The Proposal has been created and has been maintained in a way to present consistency and coherence with respect to the field, lines of research and research projects that are being developed.

The Program’s researchers are organized in two research bases whose themes reflect the lines of research of the graduate studies: 1 – Physiopathology (research base: Bioanalyses); 2 - Development and Evaluation of Medicines (research base: Drug Development), both registered in the CNPq’s Research Group Directory. These research groups bring together not only the professors and students of the Program but also other external professors-collaborators, as well as undergraduate students. In the development of the projects there is an intense exchange of information and experiences between students and professors of both levels with positive impacts on the quality of teaching and training of human resources.

In 2010 the PPgCF has managed to achieve a record number of 89 successfully graduated master’s degree students. Approximately 160 undergraduate students were registered in the Program's research projects, of which about 92 are Scientific Initiation students, of which 42 are PIBIC/CNPq fellows, or are beneficiary of a scholarship from internal programmes of the Vice-Presidencies such as the Scientific Initiation (IC) or Technological Initiation (IT) IC/IT-PROPESQ and IC/IT-PROPESQ-REUNI, in addition to the technical support scholarships. About 70 students developed their end-of-program monographs (TCC) under the supervision of the Program's professors. The very creation and implementation of the end-of-program project took place after the creation of the PPgCF, as a result of the commitment of the professors to improve the quality of the undergraduate program offered at UFRN. It is important to note that all Scientific Initiation Students (ICs) are registered in one of our CNPq research groups - Bioanalyses or Medicines. The other Scientific Initiation students are registered as Volunteers in PROPESQ [Vice-Presidency for Research] and are bound to the research bases having the same obligations of submitting a final report and of presenting the results at the UFRN’s scientific initiation congress held annually. Most of them develop the End-of-Program Project (TCC) and then join the Program to attend the Master's degree. The Graduate Studies is one of the educational levels established in the political-pedagogical project of the Pharmacy program, which is integrated with the undergraduate studies in the main lines of research, articulating teaching and research at both levels.