How to become a Pharmacist
Official title: Pharmacists
Also called: Dispensing chemist, Hospital pharmacist, Industrial pharmacist, Retail pharmacist
Pharmacists store, preserve, compound and dispense medicinal products and counsel on the proper use and adverse effects of drugs and medicines following prescriptions issued by medical doctors and other health professionals. They contribute to researching, testing, preparing, prescribing and monitoring medicinal therapies for optimizing human health.
Main tasks
- Receiving prescriptions for medicinal products from medical doctors and other health professionals, checking patients’ medicine histories, and ensuring proper dosage and methods of administration and drug compatibility before dispensing
- Preparing or supervising the preparation and labelling of liquid medicines, ointments, powders, tablets and other medications to fill prescriptions
- Providing information and advice to prescribers and clients regarding drug interactions, incompatibility and contraindications, side effects, dosage and proper medication storage
- Collaborating with other health care professionals to plan, monitor, review, and evaluate the quality and effectiveness of the medicine therapy of individual patients, and the effectiveness of particular drugs or therapies
- Maintaining prescription files and recording the issue of narcotics, poisons and habit-forming drugs in accordance with legal and professional requirements
- Storing and preserving vaccines, serums and other drugs subject to deterioration
- Advising clients on and supplying non-prescription medicines and diagnostic and therapeutic aids for common conditions
- Supervising and coordinating the work of pharmacy technicians, pharmacy interns and pharmacy sales assistants
- Conducting research to develop and improve pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and related chemical products
- Conferring with chemists, engineering professionals and other professionals about manufacturing techniques and ingredients
Ways in
- University: Pharmacy degrees, Offered by 4 universities in Hong Kong
- Licence or registration: Registering body: Pharmacy and Poisons Board. Law: Pharmacy and Poisons Ordinance (藥劑業及毒藥條例), Cap. 138. Summary by Peernovo; check the body's current rules.
Pay · Outlook · AI and this job
- Median pay: HK$48,000 a month
- About 1,542,900 people in 2025, and about 1,639,100 projected by 2028. (+6.2%)
- Generative AI can do relatively little of this work, by the ILO's global estimate.
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Questions people ask
How do I become a Pharmacist?
Ways in include: Pharmacy degrees.
Do you need a degree to become a Pharmacist?
Usually. 88% of people in this job hold a bachelor's degree or higher.
Will AI change the work of a Pharmacist?
Generative AI can do relatively little of this work, by the ILO's global estimate.
Sources
- Census and Statistics Department (2021 Population Census): 2021 Population Census, Interactive Data Dissemination Service: working population by occupation (38 groups) and sex, age, education, income; median income and field of education (9 groups) (2021 Population Census), retrieved 4 October 2026
- Census and Statistics Department (General Household Survey): Median monthly employment earnings by occupation (9 groups), excluding foreign domestic helpers (Table 210-06317A); employed persons by occupation, age and sex (210-06307A) and by industry (210-06308A) (2025 annual (series to 2026-07)), retrieved 4 October 2026
- Labour and Welfare Bureau; tables published by C&SD: Mid-term Update of Manpower Projection to 2028: supplementary statistical tables (5 occupation groups, 17 selected industries) (2025 to 2028 (published 2026-09)), retrieved 4 October 2026
- International Labour Organization, Generative AI and Jobs: A Refined Global Index of Occupational Exposure (ILO Working Paper 140, Gmyrek et al.) (ILO Working Paper 140, May 2025, Annex Table A1), CC BY 4.0, retrieved 4 October 2026
Updated 4 October 2026