Pharmacist in 2100: The Nippur drug tablet — Section 932: The Nippur drug tablet

The job has always had a double identity: scientist and shopkeeper. Pharmacists founded alkaloid chemistry — morphine, quinine and caffeine were all first isolated by people trained at the apothecary's bench — and, on the shopkeeper side, American pharmacists invented Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Dr Pepper at their soda fountains. Today the science half dominates: everywhere in the world, dispensing medicines requires a licensed professional with a university pharmacy degree and a passed national examination.

This page follows the trade from the Nippur tablet and Dioscorides' De Materia Medica through the apothecary guilds, the alkaloid century and the rise of the pharmaceutical industry, to a present in which robots count the pills and the pharmacist's real work is judgment: catching the fatal interaction, questioning the wrong dose, and — since COVID-19 — vaccinating a meaningful share of the world.

Do you need a doctorate to become a pharmacist? Only in some countries. The United States requires a Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD), the sole entry degree there since the early 2000s. The United Kingdom uses a four-year MPharm master's degree plus a foundation training year; much of Europe, Asia and Africa uses a four- to six-year bachelor's or master's in pharmacy. Every route ends in a national licensing examination and registration.