The modern pharmaceutical industry was born with the discovery of penicillin and insulin in early 1900s. This was propitious, because in a post WWII world, the need for medicines rose logarithmically. There was a population explosion in the baby boomer era, which also created a huge demand for good medicine. The pre-1900s pharmaceutical industry was non-existent; there was only a small scale industry based upon plant-based medicines.
Cures associated with various species of plants have been known since ancient times. It is believed that the first pharmacy was set up in Baghdad in 754 B.C and was based on Unani medicine. This led to the creation of educational centers associated with spreading the knowledge of medicine from one generation to the next.
Chemical-based drugs are alternatives to plant-based drugs that have given life to the pharmaceutical industry. Drug discovery is a method in which potential new drug candidates are discovered or designed in a laboratory. Drug discovery helped pharmaceutical industries ditch plants for man-made medicines. Being non-dependent on plants helped, since production of pharmaceutical medicine could be stepped up depending upon the demand. During the initial stages of the birth of the pharmaceutical industry, the drugs were developed around active ingredients obtained from plants. Some examples of these drugs are aspirin, quinine (for malaria), and many more. The latest technology in the pharma industry is targeted drug discovery where a bottom up approach is followed. This is all possible because of the continual discoveries and the participation of fresh talent in this area. Pharmaceutical education is a challenging career choice with lots of competition among companies and universities to cure diseases faster and more effectively. With the advent of biotechnology, the pharmaceutical education and the industry as a whole has taken a back seat. Figure wise though, the pharmaceutical industry is more profitable when compared to the biotechnological industry.