The Department was established in 1983 when the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Ibadan was founded. The only academic programme in the Department was the B. Pharm. Degree programme, until 1991 when the first set of Postgraduate students were admitted to the M.Sc. in Pharmaceutical Chemistry programme. A Diploma programme in Drug Analysis was later started in 2001.

 Graduates of the Postgraduate programmes occupy positions in the academia (80% of the current academic members of staff of this Department are graduates of the M.Sc and PhD programme of the Department) and Pharmaceutical Industry in Nigeria and Cameroon.

 The Department has been active in the organization of National Workshops focusing on various aspects of Drug Quality Assurance. The Workshops are usually well attended with participants drawn from every part of the country.

 Research activities in the Department over the years have been in the area of Drug Analysis - reagent design and analytical method development. Other spheres of research include; natural product research, pharmacokinetics and photochemistry. Current research efforts in the Department are focused on advanced pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) studies, pharmacogenetics, analytical phytochemistry, photochemistry/photobiology, drug/food interactions, novel analytical method development and modeling of biointerface structure and function, as tools in early stage drug discovery process.

The Department is currently exploring academic links and research collaboration with University of Sciences in Philadelphia (USP) United States of America. Professor A.A. Adejare an Associate lecturer in our Department is the current Chair of the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at USP and the facilitator of the links.