ObjectiveIn this study we describe the redesign, implementation and evaluation of a three‐quarter pharmacology course within a Pharm.D. curriculum.MethodsThis retrospective study examined the pre and post implementation of a redesigned three‐course pharmacology curriculum for second‐year pharmacy students. Course evaluations and examination scores were analyzed from four different cohorts of students (Class of 2014 to Class of 2017).Qualitative analysis of the course evaluations identified key areas of weakness to help the new course director implement changes to the entire pharmacology curriculum starting with the Class of 2014. Descriptive statistics, qualitative analysis, and correlation analysis were used to evaluate outcomes of the new course.ResultsQualitative analysis of 155 second‐year pharmacy student evaluations from the Class of 2014 identified lack of integration and coordination within the three‐course pharmacology sequence. Poor exam quality and the absence of active teaching methods were the most frequently described shortcomings of the pharmacology curriculum. In response to this analysis, exam question flaws were eliminated and active teaching modalities were introduced. Also, the new director took over more lectures to reduce the number of different guest lecturers teaching in the course. Immediately following these changes, the course evaluations dramatically improved and continued to improve over the following three years (One‐Way ANOVA with Bonferroni post‐test, p< 0.05). Significant correlations were identified between course evaluations and the number of lecturers taught by the new course director as well as the number of active teaching methods (Pearson Correlation coefficient, p<0.05). Students' performance in the years following the redesign correlated better with their performance in the third‐year Therapeutics course providing evidence for improved exam validity (Pearson Correlation coefficient, p<0.05).ConclusionA rigorous redesign of a large pharmacology course resulted in increased students' satisfaction and an improved association with exam performance in the Therapeutics course. This study highlights the importance of a well‐designed pharmacology course for continued success in core courses in the PharmD curriculum.Support or Funding InformationN/AThis abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.