Postgraduate Diploma in Drug Discovery and Development

Gain the skills required to generate therapeutics for improving human or animal health with this intensive one-year taught programme, unique in New Zealand.

Your studies will combine the biological sciences with chemistry, giving you the skills to target, design, synthesise, create, and assess new drugs. Learn how to identify drug targets and develop these into new therapeutics. Develop skills to protect intellectual property, assess the financial viability of drugs, and consider the path to pre-clinical and clinical trial processes.

Tailor your studies to your strengths, interests, and career goals. You'll learn a mix of academic and practical skills that are closely aligned with the needs of industry.

The Master of Drug Discovery and Development is best suited to capable students with a background in chemistry or relevant science-subjects such as biochemistry, biomedical science, pharmacy, or pharmacology.

Programme requirements

For this programme you’ll need to:

Complete 180 points

Include courses worth 120 points in Part 1:

- Include three courses

- Include further courses worth 60 points from:

Include courses worth 60 points in Part 2:

- Either DRGD 561 or DRGD 590

You may obtain a specialisation in Drug Development by including:

- DRGD 401

- DRGD 402

- DRGD 403

You may obtain a specialisation in Drug Discovery by including:

- DRGD 401

- Either DRGD 402 or CHEM 421

- One further course from:

You may obtain a specialisation in Chemical Biology by including:

- DRGD 401

- CHEM 421

- One further course from:

Programme requirements

Complete 120 points

Include three courses:

- DRGD 401

- Either DRGD 402 or CHEM 421

- DRGD 580

Include further courses worth 60 points from:

- BIOL 430-440

- BMSC 400-441

- BTEC 435-441

- CHEM 400-441

- CLNR 401-405

- DRGD 402

- DRGD 403

- MBIO 434-440

Programme requirements

For this programme you’ll need to:

Complete 60 points

Include two courses from:

- DRGD 401

- Either DRGD 402 or CHEM 421

Include further courses worth 30 points from:

- BIOL 430-440

- BMSC 400-441

- BTEC 435-441

- CHEM 400-441

- CLNR 401-405

- DRGD 402

- DRGD 403

- MBIO 434-440

IELTS (Academic): minimum overall score of 6.5 with no sub-score below 6.0

TOEFL: minimum score of 90 for the internet-based test with a minimum of 20 in writing

Pearson Test of English: minimum score of 58 (with a ‘Communicative’ score of not less than 50)

Victoria University of Wellington English for Academic Purpose (EAP) programme: minimum final scores of 4,4,5,5

Cambridge English Qualifications: C1 Advanced or C2 Proficiency with a score of 176 or higher, with each skill score no less than 169

New Zealand Certificates in English Language (NZCEL): Level 5 (Academic)

NZAPA: English New Zealand Accredited Pathway Assessment Level 3 (with no skill lower than Level 2)