The global biopharmaceutical industry is currently characterized by concentrated development, with dominant positions held by developed countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan. Concurrently, China is experiencing rapid enhancements in the innovation, output, and production capabilities of biopharmaceuticals, significantly increasing the demand for exceptional innovative talents. This surge aligns with the “New Medical Science” initiative aimed at cultivating top-tier innovative professionals. Medicinal chemistry, a core course in the pharmacy discipline, not only plays a crucial role in the professional training of these talents, but also bears the responsibility of cultivating their ethical and societal qualities. However, the integration of ideological and political education within the current curriculum lacks a systematic framework. The course team continuously innovates teaching philosophies, restructures content, and updates methodologies to embed ideological and political education effectively. By integrating industry-related and research-driven content throughout the course, this approach develops the stewardship expected of pharmacy professionals and improves students’ sense of academic fulfillment. This exploratory practice seeks to offer insights and serve as a reference for implementing similar educational reforms in pharmacy-related disciplines.

Pharmaceutical professionals are pivotal for the innovative and sustainable development of their industry. Cultivating talents who are the forefront of pharmaceutical advancements and equipped with entrepreneurial skills is crucial for ongoing innovation. Reflecting on the current development of China’s pharmaceutical industry and the existing gaps in pharmacy education, this paper proposes several enhancements. These include fostering innovative thinking, instilling a sense of mission, upgrading faculty skills, refreshing course content, diversifying teaching methods, boosting student engagement, and expanding university-industry collaboration. Initiatives at Lanzhou University such as the establishment of a technology-service-entrepreneurship integration platform, collaborative projects between universities and enterprises, industry experts and university professors delivering campus lectures, and continuous curriculum updates with the latest academic and industry advancements, and the creation of an integrated mechanism for cultivating students’ practical abilities through entrepreneurship competitions, innovation and entrepreneurship projects, and entrepreneurship practices, have shown promising results. This study discusses the efforts and explorations in merging pharmacy education with innovative entrepreneurial practices, providing insights and practical approaches that might benefit similar endeavors.

Medicinal chemistry is an important leading discipline in the field of pharmacy, with talent cultivation encompassing critical stages in drug discovery, including new drug creation, drug synthesis, structure-activity relationships, and drug metabolism changes in vivo. Given the broad scope and interdisciplinary nature of medicinal chemistry, we compare the different training advantages among comprehensive universities, polytechnic universities and pharmacological institutions from the perspective of “science-education synergy” and “multidisciplinary intersection”. We also explore the training strategies and specific measures for cultivating well-rounded medicinal chemistry postgraduates, focusing on mentorship system, training program design and classroom teaching methods.

Medicinal Chemistry is a crucial course in the discipline of pharmacy administration. This paper uses the discovery of the anticancer function of cisplatin as a case study to deeply explore ideological and political education in antitumor drugs. Using Cisplatin as an example, the study extends to metal-based drugs and discusses other mechanism-based antitumor drugs, summarizing their related targets and anticancer mechanisms to demonstrate the diversity of antitumor drugs. The course employs a combination of systematic lectures, case teaching, and flipped classroom approaches to enhance student engagement while embedding ideological and political education throughout the learning process, thereby enhancing teaching effectiveness. This teaching mode aims to exercise students' innovative thinking, enhance their practical abilities, and strengthen their ideological and political awareness.

Pharmacy is a multidisciplinary field that encompasses biology, chemistry, and medicine. Serving as a fundamental bridge connecting biology and chemistry, biochemistry is a core course in pharmaceutical education and plays a crucial role in cultivating high-level innovative pharmaceutical talents. However, it is traditionally taught in independent chapters with extensive and fragmented theoretical content, making it challenging for students to comprehend and apply flexibly. Effectively integrating fundamental biochemistry theory with pharmaceutical practice to cultivate innovative and practically skilled pharmaceutical professionals is a key topic in the ongoing reform of pharmaceutical education. This study uses activity evaluation of demethylase LSD1 inhibitors as an example and adopts a hybrid teaching model that combines traditional theoretical instruction with case-based teaching. By systematically linking biochemical concepts with the drug development process, this approach enhances students’ engagement, fosters scientific research and innovation, and improves their ability to analyze and solve practical problems in drug discovery. This study explores the application of a closed-loop case-based teaching model in integrating biochemistry and pharmaceutical education, aiming to enhance students’ analytical thinking and problem-solving ability. The findings provide valuable insights for the development of high-level innovative pharmaceutical talent.

The School of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Sun Yat-sen University remains committed to its fundamental mission of “fostering virtue and cultivating talents,” with the goal of developing interdisciplinary pharmaceutical innovators. Centering on student development and aligning with current trends in pharmaceutical education, the school actively participates in the New Medical Education initiative. We have established an undergraduate training system firmly grounded in chemistry, medicine, and biology, while vigorously advancing curriculum development and first-class course construction. By implementing the “Three-Comprehensive Education” approach and promoting the “Five-Education Simultaneous Development” strategy, we are creating a new paradigm for cultivating top-tier pharmaceutical talents characterized by interdisciplinary integration. Our efforts focus on producing pharmaceutical elites with solid theoretical foundations, exceptional scientific literacy, outstanding innovative capabilities, and broad international perspectives.