University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy Breaks into the Nation’s Top 10 of Pharmacy Schools
PITTSBURGH, February 26, 2001 — The University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy was recently ranked in the top 10 among the nation’s schools and colleges of pharmacy when measured by research funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Funding from the NIH is viewed as a benchmark for a school’s research programs because of the competitive and rigorous peer review process required to receive NIH funds.
The School of Pharmacy ranked 7th this year, jumping from 33rd in 1999, according to data compiled by the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy.
“We are pleased that the School of Pharmacy is recognized as one of the leaders of pharmacy research,” said Randy P. Juhl, Ph.D., dean of the School of Pharmacy at the University of Pittsburgh.
“To be placed in the same company as the leading schools of pharmacy is an endorsement of the excellent work being performed here,” said Arthur S. Levine, M.D., senior vice chancellor for the health sciences.
For more than 120 years, the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy’s faculty, staff and students have been committed to being nationally recognized leaders by virtue of the excellence of the school’s educational, research and pharmaceutical care programs. In 1999, with support from the university, the school created the Center for Pharmacogenetics to study the interface between drug response and genetics. Recent strengthening of the school’s research programs in drug and alcohol abuse, neuroendocrine psychopharmacology, pharmacogenetics, and others have resulted in an increase from less than $1 million to more than $4 million in NIH funding in the past year. This places the school in the top tier of the nation’s research-intensive schools of pharmacy and provides a valuable and complementary resource to the school’s outstanding professional education and clinical care programs.
“This growth and new level of achievement is the result of effort on the part of a very dedicated group of faculty and staff,” said Patricia D. Kroboth, Ph.D., professor and chairman of the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences.