Pharmacology vs Pharmacy; Which one is Better?

Just like medical billing and coding fields, we can see tough competition when considering pharmacology vs pharmacy. Drugs and their administration are the main focus of both of these professions. Both fields seem connected but there is a huge difference between them. Anyone thinking of pursuing any of these professions will not like to shoot a gun in the blind.

Career selection is a crucial step. Before specializing in a particular field in your studies, you must be aware of career responsibilities and motives. Whether you have to choose between medical billing and coding or you have to pick one between pharmacology and pharmacy.

Here we have a solution to your confusion in choosing a career path for you. This article will give you a detailed picture of pharmacology vs pharmacy. Dwell down if you are facing problems in selecting an appropriate career path.

Detailed Definition of Pharmacology

Pharmacology is a multidisciplinary branch of science. It is the study of medications centered on their activity and physiological impacts on biological systems. It makes a perfect correlation of drugs with other disciplines of science say biochemistry, cell biology, microbiology, etc.

The students meet two sub-fields at higher levels of their pharmacology studies.

One of them is pharmacokinetics which includes details about drug movement in the body.
Second is pharmacodynamics which explains the body’s biological feedback to a drug.

Both branches as mentioned above make a bright picture of a drug’s efficacy. They go hand-in-hand just like medical billing and coding. Medical billing and coding professionals work in collaboration to generate revenue for a practice. Similarly, we utilize both pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics to declare a medicine safe for biological systems. Hence, pharmacology has diverse applications in drug discovery and the overall pharmaceutical industry.

Let us tell you that pharmacology has nothing to do with a drug’s formation. However, in higher studies, pharmacologists often study some drug-making processes as a part of their educational courses. If we compare pharmacology vs pharmacy, we define pharmacology as a study of:

Drug functionality and development for improving human or veterinary health
Chemical reactivity in the body (interaction with different bodily chemicals)
Recovery pathway for curing a disease
Body’s receptivity for a drug (body’s natural response)
Impact and purposes of different drugs

General Role and Responsibilities of a Pharmacologist

Professional pharmacologists take on the following job responsibilities on their shoulders:

Check out the drug’s potential for the prevention and treatment of ailments and the rejuvenation of healthy conditions
Get familiarity with a disease for the development of new drugs
Screen effective chemical compounds via a series of controlled experimentations and successful clinical trials
Examine the tissues’ molecular physiology and depict the drug chemistry
Measure the drug-response curve for characterizing the chemical compound’s activity (analysis for finding a drug’s potency)
Investigate the toxicity of various toxic chemicals (poisons) and their harmful effects
Publish their findings and drug research for getting funds and grant proposals from various government and private sectors

Different Career Pathways for a Pharmacologist

After completion of their course curriculum, a pharmacologist can walk into several professions.

Since pharmacology is a research-based subject, one can choose to become a bench scientist. A pharmacologist as a bench scientist usually spends 10-12 hours a day in extensive research and examination.

Career Options apart from working in labs open up the way for becoming:

A Professor at a university
An Executive at a pharmaceutical company
A Researcher at a university

Different pharmaceutical companies, universities, the NHS, the Medical Research Council, and other government research organizations actively look for professional pharmacologists. Here they can give guidance for business decisions in the drug development process.

Keep this factor in mind that there is tough competition in professional life at the beginning of a career. It is hard to secure a suitable job and get the best from an opportunity as it is for medical billing and coding fields. But expert bench scientists make $80,974 as an average annual salary. Likewise, pharmacologists from other field areas secure even more salaries.

Detailed Definition of Pharmacy

Pharmacy is the branch of science that merges medical sciences with chemistry. In contrast to pharmacology, it is a practice of manufacturing, conserving, and dispensing medical products. This branch spares important information regarding drugs to patients and practitioners. Pharmacy includes a vast course curriculum.

The pharmacists first complete their 5-year degree program in B.Pharm. It is customary for a fresher pharmacist to complete a 1500-hour training period. That’s why they start practicing in a well-known pharmaceutical company (better if they practice in a government pharmaceutical establishment).

However, the practice requires a thorough understanding of several things;

Active drug knowledge
Drug interaction
Modes of drug action
Mobility
Toxicity

The B.Pharm degree program fulfills all these components. So, the one-year practice period just after the degree completion is the skills testing and improvement period for fresh pharmacists. As a consequence, they get polished and equipped with considerable practice know-how.

In short, pharmacists are the personnel with a legal license for drug prescription and that’s what they do for patients. They are familiar with everything related to drugs, such as medical billing and coding field is about a patient’s condition. A pharmacist usually has vast knowledge about;

Discovery of a drug
Production of a drug
Disposal of a drug
Safety / Control of a drug
Dosage of a drug

In addition to these, professional pharmacists get expertise in disease management and immunology. They also have a deep understanding of acute and ambulatory care, internal medicine, and other related subjects.

General Role and Responsibilities of a Pharmacist

Professional pharmacists perform the following job responsibilities:

Distribute medication to patients as per doctor’s prescriptions
Confirm the doctors’ recommendations for the right dosages and dosing schedules for their patients
Figure out adverse effects of some newly prescribed medications (if the patient uses medicines for some pre-existing medical situation)
Guide patients through the process of medicine administration (when and how to take medicines)
Disclose the possible adverse effects of a drug on patients
Administer the patient’s vaccination, including COVID-19 vaccines and boosters, pediatric vaccines, etc.
Advising basic health and wellness information to patients

Different Career Pathways for a Pharmacist

One of the well-defined professions in the US is becoming a pharmacist. According to estimates, approximately 90% of pharmacy students become professional pharmacists either in;

Drugstores
Hospitals
Clinics
Other pharmacy settings

Here they actively interact with patients, physicians, and insurance providers for dispensing medications. On the other side, medical billing and coding experts interact with the same persons but for different purposes.

Anyhow, the remaining 10% go for other alternative career paths within the pharmacy. For example,

A pharmacy student can enter into professional life by starting as a regulatory affairs specialist at any pharma/biotech firm.
Also, they can go on the sales side for guiding hospitals and practices about drug composition (chemistry) and effectiveness.
Become a pharmacy professor

Which one is more suitable; Pharmacology vs Pharmacy?

Distinguishing between medical billing and coding when thinking of pursuing any of them as a profession is difficult. Similarly, when discussing pharmacology vs pharmacy, it is not easy to say which one is better. Both fields are equally important. If someone is interested in drugs, then becoming a pharmacist is the best option. And if someone is passionate about drug action in living systems, then pharmacology is the right choice for them.

As we know, the debate between pharmacy and pharmacology has left you perplexed about choosing a career path as it happens always when picking one from the medical billing and coding fields. The information in this article might help select between pharmacology and pharmacy. Moreover, we advise you to conduct your research on remuneration, perks, opportunity cost, and employment availability in your selected area.

Likewise, seeking advice from someone already employed in the field may also be beneficial. They may be able to give you a thorough breakdown of the advantages and disadvantages that will aid in your decision-making.

To sum up, you should acquire all the information required before enrolling in a degree. Make sure you do not hurry into choosing between pharmacology and pharmacy.