The scientific study of how drugs work in the body and how the body responds to them. It includes how medicines are absorbed, spread, changed, and removed.
From Greek “pharmakon” (drug) + “-logia” (study of). It became a distinct field as scientists began to study drugs systematically rather than by trial and error.
Pharmacology turns folk medicine into testable science, asking exactly what a substance does at the molecular level. It’s a reminder that every ‘simple pill’ is actually the result of huge amounts of data and careful measurement.
Pharmacology historically treated the adult male body as the norm, with women and pregnant people often excluded from trials, producing gender‑skewed safety and efficacy data. Only more recently have regulatory frameworks pushed for sex‑disaggregated analysis.
When presenting pharmacological data, specify whether studies included women and gender‑diverse participants, and avoid generalizing male‑dominated data to everyone.
Women pharmacologists and clinical researchers have been key in demonstrating sex‑specific drug responses and advocating for inclusive trial design.
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