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Pharmacy is the science and practice of drug discovery, manufacture, preparation, distribution, review and monitoring with the aim of ensuring the safe, effective and cost-effective use of drugs. It is a multidisciplinary science as it combines health sciences with pharmaceutical sciences and natural sciences. Professional practice is becoming more clinically oriented as most drugs are now manufactured by the pharmaceutical industry. Based on the setting, pharmacy practice is classified as community or institutional pharmacy. Providing direct patient care in the community of institutional pharmacies is considered clinical pharmacy.
The scope of pharmacy practice includes more traditional roles such as compounding and dispensing medications. It includes clinical services, reviews of drugs for safety and efficacy, and more modern services related to healthcare, including the provision of drug information. Pharmacists are, therefore, experts in drug therapy and primary health professionals who optimize the use of drugs for the benefit of patients.
An establishment where pharmacy (in the first sense) is practiced is called a pharmacy (the term is more common in the United States) or a chemist (which is more common in Great Britain, although pharmacy is also used). In the United States and Canada, drugstores typically sell drugs, as well as miscellaneous items such as confectionery, cosmetics, office supplies, toys, hair care products and magazines, and occasionally snacks and groceries.
The work of the apothecary can be considered a precursor to the modern sciences of chemistry and pharmacology, prior to the formulation of the scientific method, in the investigation of herbs and chemical constituents.
