In the 1970s, the College of Pharmacy was going through significant changes. In 1972, the college came under the administrative control of UNMC. The College of Pharmacy had been physically located in Lincoln since it was established in 1915.
Between 1972 and 1976, the College of Pharmacy student body was split between Lincoln and Omaha. UNMC constructed a new home for the college in Omaha, which finally opened in 1976. The move to Omaha provided pharmacy students with clinical experience and interaction with other health care professionals. A new curriculum was introduced too, creating a doctor of pharmacy degree (Pharm.D.), only the third offered in the country at that time. The College of Pharmacy faculty were looking toward the future of the pharmaceutical industry.
As of 1975, 72% of College of Pharmacy graduates went to work in drug stores in small Nebraska towns. The college wanted to introduce work opportunities beyond drug stores, such as with pharmaceutical companies, the FDA, or the U.S. Public Health Service.
In the fall semester of 1975, the University of Nebraska College of Pharmacy partnered with Dorsey Laboratories, a division of Sandoz Inc., to debut a new class, “Industrial and Manufacturing Pharmacy.” The class, led by Dorsey personnel, met at the Dorsey Laboratories in Lincoln. The class covered product development, pharmaceutical packaging, pharmaceutical marketing, sales organization and functions, analytical research, and pharmaceutical distributing and warehousing. College of Pharmacy faculty member and future dean, Clarence Ueda, Pharm.D., Ph.D., conducted the grading.
Today, Dorsey Laboratories is known as Novartis Consumer Health, a company that joined with the British company GlaxoSmithKline in 2014 to manufacture over-the-counter drugs in the Lincoln plant. In the 21st century, the pharmacy profession has changed, but the UNMC College of Pharmacy’s commitment to educating future pharmacists, researchers, and health care providers has never wavered.