The origins of pharmacy education at Soochow University date back to 1949, with the establishment of the Specialized Department of Pharmacy. In 1993, the Department of Pharmacology was founded at Suzhou Medical College, building upon its earlier pharmacology program. Following the merger of Suzhou Medical College into Soochow University in 2000, the College of Pharmaceutical Science was officially established in 2005. Leveraging the disciplinary strengths of a comprehensive university, the robust economic growth of Suzhou, and the highly developed pharmaceutical industry in Jiangsu Province, the College has become a leading training base for high-end pharmacy talents in China.

The College offers a complete educational system spanning undergraduate, master’s, doctoral, and postdoctoral programs. It provides three undergraduate majors: Pharmacy, Traditional Chinese Medicine, and Biopharmaceuticals. The Pharmacy major has been designated as a national first-class undergraduate program. Since 2014, the College has offered an English-taught pharmacy major, and its Pharmacology course has been recognized by the Ministry of Education as a model English-taught course for international students.

The College is supported by a strong and experienced faculty. It currently has 138 faculty members, including 93 full-time instructors, among whom are 46 professors, 34 associate professors, and 13 lecturers. The majority of faculty members have study or work experience abroad.

The College is equipped with substantial research funding and world-class facilities. In recent years, it has been awarded numerous research grants, including over 30 provincial-level grants and more than 100 national-level grants, such as the National Key Basic Research (973) Program, the National High Technology (863) Program, the Key Project of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the National Support Plan Program, and general projects of the National Natural Science Foundation. The College hosts three national research platforms, four Jiangsu provincial key laboratories or research centers, two Suzhou municipal key laboratories, and two university-level research institutes. The pharmacy discipline has been listed as a Priority Academic Program Development (PAPD) project of Jiangsu higher education institutions and as a key discipline of Jiangsu Province. The Pharmacology and Toxicology discipline ranks in the top 0.6‰ globally according to Essential Science Indicators (ESI).

The College places great emphasis on international collaboration and strives to enhance its global impact. To date, it has established research partnerships and faculty/student exchange programs with Harvard Medical School, the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI), Université Grenoble Alpes, Tohoku University, Yeungnam University, and Kyungpook National University, among others. The International College of Pharmaceutical Innovation (ICPI) is an education institute founded by both Soochow University and RCSI.