University Pharmacy: from the foundation to the Pandemic times of Covid-19

Abstract

The University Pharmacy Program (FU), from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), was created based on the need to offer a curricular internship to students of the Undergraduate Course at the Faculty of Pharmacy. Currently, it is responsible for the care of about 200 patients/day, offering vacancies for curricular internships for students in the Pharmacy course, it has become a reference in the manipulation of many drugs neglected by the pharmaceutical industry and provides access to medicines for low-income users playing an important social function. Research is one of the pillars of FU-UFRJ and several master and doctoral students use the FU research laboratory in the development of dissertations and theses. As of 2002, the Pharmaceutical Care extension projects started to guarantee a rational and safe pharmacotherapy for the medicine users. From its beginning in 1982 until the current quarantine due to the COVID-19 pandemic, FU-UFRJ has been adapting to the new reality and continued to provide patient care services, maintaining its teaching, research, and extension activities. The FU plays a relevant social role in guaranteeing the low-income population access to special and neglected medicines, and to pharmaceutical and education services in health promotion.