Pharmacy is the science and practice of discovering, producing, preparing, dispensing, reviewing and monitoring medications, aiming to ensure the safe, effective, and affordable use of medicines.

[citation needed] In the United States and Canada, drugstores commonly sell medicines, as well as miscellaneous items such as confectionery, cosmetics, office supplies, toys, hair care products and magazines, and occasionally refreshments and groceries.

In its investigation of herbal and chemical ingredients, the work of the apothecary may be regarded as a precursor of the modern sciences of chemistry and pharmacology, prior to the formulation of the scientific method.

Those who wish to practice both pharmacy (patient-oriented) and pharmacology (a biomedical science requiring the scientific method) receive separate training and degrees unique to either discipline.

[3] Pharmacists are healthcare professionals with specialized education and training who perform various roles to ensure optimal health outcomes for their patients through the quality use of medicines.

Pharmacy technicians support the work of pharmacists and other health professionals by performing a variety of pharmacy-related functions, including dispensing prescription drugs and other medical devices to patients and instructing on their use.

The Latin translation De Materia Medica (Concerning medical substances) was used as a basis for many medieval texts and was built upon by many middle eastern scientists during the Islamic Golden Age, themselves deriving their knowledge from earlier Greek Byzantine medicine.

Ranked positions in the pre-Heian Imperial court were established; and this organizational structure remained largely intact until the Meiji Restoration (1868).

In this highly stable hierarchy, the pharmacists—and even pharmacist assistants—were assigned status superior to all others in health-related fields such as physicians and acupuncturists.

[9] There is a stone sign for a pharmacy shop with a tripod, a mortar, and a pestle opposite one for a doctor in the Arcadian Way in Ephesus near Kusadasi in Turkey.

The advances made in the Middle East in botany and chemistry led medicine in medieval Islam substantially to develop pharmacology.

His Liber servitoris is of particular interest, as it provides the reader with recipes and explains how to prepare the "simples" from which were compounded the complex drugs then generally used.

Sabur Ibn Sahl (d 869), was, however, the first physician to record his findings in a pharmacopoeia, describing a large variety of drugs and remedies for ailments.

Of great impact were also the works by al-Maridini of Baghdad and Cairo, and Ibn al-Wafid (1008–1074), both of which were printed in Latin more than fifty times, appearing as De Medicinis universalibus et particularibus by 'Mesue' the younger, and the Medicamentis simplicibus by 'Abenguefit'.

Living in the 10th century, he wrote The foundations of the true properties of Remedies, amongst others describing arsenious oxide, and being acquainted with silicic acid.

Because of the complexity of medications including specific indications, effectiveness of treatment regimens, safety of medications (i.e., drug interactions) and patient compliance issues (in the hospital and at home), many pharmacists practicing in hospitals gain more education and training after pharmacy school through a pharmacy practice residency, sometimes followed by another residency in a specific area.

Hospital pharmacists and trained pharmacy technicians compound sterile products for patients including total parenteral nutrition (TPN), and other medications are given intravenously.

Pharmacists provide direct patient care services that optimize the use of medication and promotes health, wellness, and disease prevention.

[26] Compounding is a way to create custom drugs for patients who may not be able to take the medication in its standard form, such as due to an allergy or difficulty swallowing.

Consultant pharmacy practice focuses more on medication regimen review (i.e. "cognitive services") than on actual dispensing of drugs.

consultant pharmacists were usually independent business owners, though in the United States many now work for a large pharmacy management company such as Omnicare, Kindred Healthcare or PharMerica.

This trend may be gradually reversing[citation needed] as consultant pharmacists begin to work directly with patients, primarily because many elderly people are now taking numerous medications but continue to live outside of institutional settings.

As a practice area and specialist domain, pharmacy informatics is growing quickly to meet the needs of major national and international patient information projects and health system interoperability goals.

Specialty pharmacies supply high-cost injectable, oral, infused, or inhaled medications that are used for chronic and complex disease states such as cancer, hepatitis, and rheumatoid arthritis.

[36] The pharmaceutical sciences are a group of interdisciplinary areas of study concerned with the design, manufacturing, action, delivery, and classification of drugs.

[43] The word pharmacy is derived from Old French farmacie "substance, such as a food or in the form of a medicine which has a laxative effect" from Medieval Latin pharmacia from Greek pharmakeia (Ancient Greek: φαρμακεία) "a medicine", which itself derives from pharmakon (φάρμακον), meaning "drug, poison, spell"[44][45][a] (which is etymologically related to pharmakos).

In 2022 the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development proposed that pharmaceutical companies should be required to collect and destroy unused or expired medicines that they have put on the market in order to reduce public health risks around the misuse of medicines obtained from waste bins, the development of antimicrobial resistant bacteria from the discharge of antibiotics into environmental systems and "economic losses" from wasted healthcare resources.

This shift has already commenced in some countries; for instance, pharmacists in Australia receive remuneration from the Australian Government for conducting comprehensive Home Medicines Reviews.

In Canada, pharmacists in certain provinces have limited prescribing rights (as in Alberta and British Columbia) or are remunerated by their provincial government for expanded services such as medications reviews (Medschecks in Ontario).

[52] The symbols most commonly associated with pharmacy are the mortar and pestle (North America) and the ℞ (medical prescription) character, which is often written as "Rx" in typed text; the green Greek cross in France, Argentina, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Ireland, Italy, Spain, and India; the Bowl of Hygieia (only) often used in the Netherlands but may be seen combined with other symbols elsewhere.