As the development of pharmaceutical industry, large amounts of sludge was produced, which is a hazardous waste with high environmental risks and high disposal fees. In this study, the wet oxidation treatment of pharmaceutical sludge was investigated. The effects of the reaction parameters on the process performance were discussed, such as reaction time, temperature, initial oxygen supply and catalysts. The results illustrated that the highest removal rate of volatile suspended solids (VSS) and the total chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal rates could reach up to 60.7% and 91.3% separately under 260°C with initial oxygen pressure 1.0 MPa and the reaction time 60 min. Thus, the wet oxidation process provides an economical and feasible alternative for the industrial activated sludge treatment, especially for the pharmaceutical sludge.