Message from the Dean

Greetings Future Pharmacists:

The last three years have undoubtedly been some of the most challenging globally and in Lebanon.The Lebanese American University (LAU) family has been faced with the perfect storm economically, politically, and socially. Certainly, pharmacy as a profession is experiencing its own challenges with a competitive job market locally and regionally, limited support for the profession to practice at the top of its degrees, a brain drain of many talented educators, staff and graduates, and the financial hardship placed on students and their families.

In the midst of this, Lebanon, LAU and its School of Pharmacy have demonstrated the resilience to face this perfect storm. We believe that during times like these it is of utmost importance to disrupt the status quo and be agile and innovative.

The LAU School of Pharmacy offers a five-year program that leads to a BS in Pharmacy following two years of prepharmacy and three years of professional education. The BS in Pharmacy allows you to become a licensed pharmacist qualified to practice in Lebanon. An additional sixth year of clinical experience consisting of four required advanced pharmacy practice experiences (APPEs) in the United States and five elective APPEs in Lebanon enables you to earn a Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) degree.

Our PharmD program is the only pharmacy program accredited by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) outside the United States, which allows graduates to sit for North America Pharmacist Licensure Examination (NAPLEX) right after graduation, as any graduate from an ACPE accredited pharmacy school. Our program has been a beacon for quality pharmacy education for many years with faculty, staff, students, and alumni who are making a difference on a daily basis. Our faculty are highly qualified in the pharmaceutical, social and administrative and clinical sciences. They are student-centered and challenge our students to excel.

As a school, we strongly believe that it is our responsibility, in collaboration with the university, to provide the best education for our students to help them address the challenges we are facing and prepare them for a fruitful career path.

Our curriculum and co-curriculum are coordinated, assessed and always evolving to equip students with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to excel in the current and future pharmacy settings, including health-system pharmacy, community service, cultural competency, entrepreneurship, industrial pharmacy, medication therapy management, pharmacoeconomics. pharmacogenomics, public health and wellness.

Our facilities and infrastructure are state-of-the-art and provide ample opportunities for active learning, engagement in interprofessional education with our healthcare schools, online learning, simulation and Objective Structured Clinical Evaluation (OSCE), research and in-campus life.

Advocacy in collaboration with the Order of Pharmacists in Lebanon (OPL), other pharmacy and healthcare organizations, the pharmaceutical industry, Ministry of Public Health, and others is key to what we do to impress on all stakeholders that pharmacy is a profession so that pharmacists are reimbursed for their cognitive abilities and an overall reimbursement model for pharmacists from a fee-for-service model to a value-based model is put into effect. The above is important to provide our graduates with the job opportunities and respect for their expertise and stop the brain drain that can impact the delivery of an added-value quality healthcare.  

Our program also offers graduate education as part of the school’s MS in Pharmaceutical Development and Management. Graduates of this program will acquire the skills and knowledge to launch their careers (Regulatory Affairs, Quality Control and Quality Assurance, Research and Development, etc.), or pursue a PhD. Our Postgraduate Year 1 (PGY1) Residency program is accredited by the American Society of Health-Systems Pharmacists (ASHP). Graduates of this program have joined PGY2 residency programs, hired as academics or clinical pharmacists.  

I am highly enthusiastic about being part of the LAU and SOP family, collaborating with all our stakeholders to meet our challenges and explore our opportunities. So, on behalf of the faculty and staff at the LAU School of Pharmacy, I would like to encourage you to apply to our exceptional program and join a family of educators, staff, students, and alumni who are committed to make a difference in your future, and the future of the healthcare system in Lebanon and elsewhere. 

If you have any questions about our program, do not hesitate to reach out to us. Should you require more information, please take a few minutes to browse our website or stop by. Otherwise, send us an email with your questions at sopsupport@lau.edu.lb and a member of our team will get back to you shortly after.

We look forward to welcoming you as part of our LAU family and as a future graduate of our beloved school and a competent, disruptor and innovator practitioner of pharmacy.

Best wishes!

Naser Zaki Alsharif, PharmD, MS, PhD

Professor & Dean