Pharmaceutical Engineering

Offered at the Purdue Indianapolis campus starting Fall 2025

The Pharmaceutical Engineering program addresses, using a holistic approach, the emerging problems of pharmaceutical production with special emphasis on the purification, formulation and administration of active pharmaceutical products and the development of novel healthcare engineering approaches. It takes from 10 to 15 years to bring a new pharmaceutical product to market at a cost which rapidly approaches $1 billion. Many potential new pharmaceutical products fail because researchers lack reliable information about their behavior and are unable to develop production processes which guarantee consistent product quality, stability and suitable dosage forms and methods. Courses are designed to provide graduates with the skills to be able to design and develop pharmaceutical products and modern manufacturing processes at the systems level, ensure quality of products through design, development and control, increase the technical depth of knowledge in pharmaceutical manufacturing processes and products, as well as to communicate, negotiate, and lead within a global pharmaceutical enterprise and manage pharmaceutical organizations and people.

Professional Master’s Program Degree Map

MSChE – Pharmaceutical Engineering - 12-month Track

  • Students must earn a “C” or better in all graduate-level coursework
  • Students must complete at least 15 credits of coursework with a CHE prefix
  • Students must have a cumulative GPA of 2.7 or higher to graduate

Degree Requirements

30 credits required for graduation:

  • 6 Credits of Core ChE Course:
    • (3) CHE 69700 – Statistical Methods in Chemical Engineering OR CHE 53000 – Engineering Math
    • (3) CHE 54000 – Transport Phenomena
  • 9 Credits of Concentration Elective Courses
  • 9 Credits of Management/Business Courses from the following:
    • (3) CHE 59700 – Engineering Applications in Marketing Mgmt
    • (3) CHE 59700 – Financial Analysis & Management of Projects
    • (3) MGMT 65000 – Strategic Management I
    • (3) MGMT 66000 – Intro to Operations Management
  • 6 Credits of ChE Capstone Project

Degree Map Example

Fall Semester (12 credits)

___ (3) CHE 53000 – Engineering Math

___ (3) CHE 59700 – Engineering Applications in Marketing Mgmt

___ (3) Concentration Elective Course (chosen from the list below)

___ (3) Concentration Elective Course (chosen from the list below)

Spring Semester (12 credits)

___ (3) CHE 54000 – Transport Phenomena

___ (3) CHE 59700 – Financial Analysis & Management of Projects

___ (3) MGMT 65000 – Strategic Management I OR (3) MGMT 66000 – Intro to Operations Management

___ (3) Concentration Elective Course (chosen from the list below)

Summer Semester (6 Credits)

___ (6) CHE 59700 – Prof. MS Capstone Project

Potential Concentration Elective Courses:

___ (3) BCHM 56100 – General Biochemistry I
___ (3) CHE 52100 – Principles of Tissue Engineering
___ (3) CHE 55100 – Principles of Pharmaceutical Engr.
___ (3) CHE 55300 – Pharm Process Develop & Design
___ (3) CHE 59700 – Analy. Approach to Healthcare Delivery
___ (3) CHE 59700 – Crystallization Systems in ChE
___ (3) CHE 59700 – Data Science in ChE
___ (3) CHE 59700 – Industrial Chemical Technology
___ (3) CHE 59700 – Intro to Pharmaceutical Industry
___ (3) CHE 59700 – Medical Devices Dev & Application
___ (3) CHE 59700 – Process Safety
___ (3) CHM 53300 – Introductory Biochemistry
___ (3) CHM 53800 – Molecular Biotechnology
___ (3) IPPH 58000 – Physical Chemical Principles
___ (3) IPPH 58300 – Adv Biopharmaceutics
___ (2) IPPH 58700 – Pharmaceutical Solids
___ (3) ME 50500 – Intermediate Heat Transfer
___ (3) ME 53101/53201 – Particle, Powder & Compact Characterization
___ (3) MSE 51200 – Powder Processing
___ (3) MSE 59700 – Lean Manufacturing

Professional Master’s Program Degree Map

MSChE – Pharmaceutical Engineering – 16-month Track

  • Students must earn a “C” or better in all undergraduate and graduate-level coursework
  • Students must complete at least 15 credits of coursework with a CHE prefix
  • Students must have a cumulative GPA of 2.7 or higher to graduate

Degree Requirements

41 credits required for graduation

  • 11 credits of pre-requisite courses:
    • (4) CHE 20500 – Chemical Engineering Calculations
    • (3) CHE 30600 – Separations Processes
    • (4) CHE 34800 – Reaction Engineering
  • 6 Credits of Core ChE Course:
    • (3) CHE 53000 – Engineering Math
    • (3) CHE 54000 – Transport Phenomena
  • 9 Credits of Concentration Elective Courses
  • 9 Credits of Management/Business Courses from the following:
    • (3) CHE 59700 – Engineering Applications in Marketing Mgmt
    • (3) CHE 59700 – Financial Analysis & Management of Projects
    • (3) MGMT 65000 – Strategic Management I
    • (3) MGMT 66000 – Intro to Operations Management
  • 6 Credits of ChE Capstone Project

Degree Map Example

Fall Semester 1 (10 credits)

___ (4) CHE 20500 – Chemical Engineering Calculations

___ (3) CHE 53000 – Engineering Math

___ (3) Concentration Elective Course (from the list below)

Spring Semester 1 (13-16 credits)

___ (3) CHE 30600 – Separations Processes

___ (4) CHE 34800 – Reaction Engineering

___ (3) CHE 54000 – Transport Phenomena

___ (3) CHE 59700 – Financial Analysis & Management of Projects

___ (3) MGMT 65000 – Strategic Management I OR (3) MGMT 66000 – Intro to Operations Management

Summer Semester 1 (6 Credits)

___ (6) CHE 59700 – Prof. MS Capstone Project

Fall Semester 2 (9 Credits)

___ (3) CHE 59700 – Engineering Applications in Marketing Mgmt

___ (3) Concentration Elective Course (from the list below)

___ (3) Concentration Elective Course (from the list below)

Potential Concentration Elective Courses:

___ (3) BCHM 56100 – General Biochemistry I
___ (3) CHE 52100 – Principles of Tissue Engineering
___ (3) CHE 55100 – Principles of Pharmaceutical Engr.
___ (3) CHE 55300 – Pharm Process Develop & Design
___ (3) CHE 59700 – Analy. Approach to Healthcare Delivery
___ (3) CHE 59700 – Crystallization Systems in ChE
___ (3) CHE 59700 – Data Science in ChE
___ (3) CHE 59700 – Industrial Chemical Technology
___ (3) CHE 59700 – Intro to Pharmaceutical Industry
___ (3) CHE 59700 – Medical Devices Dev & Application
___ (3) CHE 59700 – Process Safety
___ (3) CHM 53300 – Introductory Biochemistry
___ (3) CHM 53800 – Molecular Biotechnology
___ (3) IPPH 58000 – Physical Chemical Principles
___ (3) IPPH 58300 – Adv Biopharmaceutics
___ (2) IPPH 58700 – Pharmaceutical Solids
___ (3) ME 50500 – Intermediate Heat Transfer
___ (3) ME 53101/53201 – Particle, Powder & Compact Characterization
___ (3) MSE 51200 – Powder Processing
___ (3) MSE 59700 – Lean Manufacturing