By the Pharmacy Team (M.Pharm), JKKN College of Pharmacy · Reviewed by the Admission Office · Published 31 July 2026 · Last updated 31 July 2026
Quick answer (52 words): If you searched "form D course", you mean Pharm D — short for Doctor of Pharmacy, a six-year clinical pharmacy degree. It is not a medical degree and a Pharm D graduate is a pharmacist, not a physician. The correct written form is Pharm.D or Pharm D.
Over six months, more than five hundred people reached this site searching for a "form D course".
There is no such course. They mean Pharm D, and they are typing what they heard — from a relative, a neighbour, a school counsellor — because the name travels by word of mouth long before anybody sees it written down.
If that is you, you are in the right place and you have not made a foolish mistake. Here is the name sorted out, and then the more consequential confusion underneath it.
The spellings you will see
What people write | Correct? | Note |
|---|---|---|
Pharm.D | Yes | The standard written form |
Pharm D | Yes | Common and acceptable |
PharmD | Yes | Widely used, particularly internationally |
Pharma D | No | Common slip; "pharma" is the industry, not the degree |
Form D | No | A mishearing of "Pharm D" |
Farm D | No | Same mishearing, written differently |
Pharma Doctor | No | Not a qualification |
None of these is worth being embarrassed about. The degree's name is genuinely awkward — an abbreviation of a Latin-derived title, said quickly — and mishearing it is what happens when a course is discussed before it is read.
What matters is that you search the right thing next, because "form D" will not find you a college list and "Pharm D" will.
What Pharm D actually is
Doctor of Pharmacy. A six-year professional degree: five academic years plus a full-time hospital internship year.
What it trains you for. Clinical pharmacy — working alongside doctors and nurses on hospital wards, reviewing medication, watching for interactions and adverse effects, advising on dosing, and counselling patients. It is a patient-facing clinical qualification rather than a laboratory or industry one.
Who regulates it. The Pharmacy Council of India, the same body that approves B.Pharm and D.Pharm. Approval is granted course by course.
Our guide to what each of the six years covers walks through the programme, and what a clinical pharmacist actually does all day describes the job it leads to.
The confusion that actually matters
"Doctor of Pharmacy" contains the word doctor, and that produces a question families ask constantly and rarely get a straight answer to.
A Pharm D graduate is a pharmacist, not a physician.
The qualification is a doctoral-level professional degree in pharmacy. It is not a medical degree. A Pharm D holder does not train in medicine or surgery, does not diagnose disease as a physician does, and does not practise medicine. The clinical work is medication expertise, exercised alongside the medical team rather than in place of it.
That is not a lesser thing. Medication is where a great deal of avoidable harm happens in hospitals, and a clinical pharmacist who catches an interaction has done something a busy ward genuinely needs. But it is a different thing, and anybody choosing the course believing it is a route into practising medicine has misunderstood it in a way that will cost six years.
On the "Dr" prefix specifically: whether Pharm D graduates may use the title has been debated in India and the position is not something we are going to assert here, because we hold no current verified ruling and a wrong statement in either direction would be unhelpful. If it matters to you, ask the Pharmacy Council of India and the relevant medical council for the current position rather than relying on any college page — including this one. Our pharmacy council page links the regulator.
Pharm D against the courses it gets confused with
Pharm D | B.Pharm | MBBS | |
|---|---|---|---|
Full name | Doctor of Pharmacy | Bachelor of Pharmacy | Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery |
Length | 6 years incl. hospital internship | 4 years | As set by the medical regulator |
Regulator | Pharmacy Council of India | Pharmacy Council of India | The medical regulator |
Trains you as | Clinical pharmacist | Pharmacist | Physician |
Centre of gravity | Hospital wards, medication | Pharmaceutical science, industry | Diagnosis and treatment of disease |
Prescribes as a physician | No | No | Yes |
The middle column is worth reading twice. Pharm D and B.Pharm are both pharmacy degrees under the same regulator; they differ in length and in direction, not in kind. Batch 1's B.Pharm versus Pharm D guide covers the choice between them properly.
Why the name matters for your search
A practical point, since you got here by searching something.
Search "Pharm D", not "form D". The results are entirely different, and the useful ones — approved college lists, counselling notifications, seat matrices — only appear under the correct term.
Search "Pharm D" rather than "Doctor of Pharmacy" for admission information. Both are correct, but Indian admission material overwhelmingly uses the abbreviation.
Watch for "Pharm D Post Baccalaureate", sometimes shortened to Pharm.D PB. It is a shorter route for B.Pharm graduates, not a different degree — batch 1's post-baccalaureate guide covers it.
And when you have the right term, use it on the right documents: the approved-institution list, the affiliating university's list and the current seat matrix. Our guide to where the official Pharm D college list comes from sets out all three.
Why the name gets mangled in the first place
Worth a moment, because understanding it stops you being caught out by the next piece of second-hand advice.
It travels by ear. Almost nobody first encounters this course in writing. It arrives in a conversation — a cousin who joined, a neighbour whose daughter is doing it — and "Pharm D" said quickly in an Indian-English sentence is genuinely close to "form D".
The abbreviation hides the meaning. "Pharm" is not a word on its own. Nothing in the sound tells you it is short for pharmacy, so the ear has nothing to correct itself against — unlike, say, "B.Sc Nursing", where every part carries meaning.
It is a comparatively new qualification in India. Older relatives advising a school-leaver may have no reference point for it at all, and will describe it in the terms they do have: "a doctor course", "a pharmacy thing", "like MBBS but for medicines".
The other pharmacy names are similar to each other. D.Pharm, B.Pharm, M.Pharm, Pharm D. Four qualifications, one syllable apart, at four different levels. Mixing them up is not carelessness; it is a naming system that invites it.
The practical lesson is small and useful: when somebody describes a course to you verbally, write the name down and look it up before you believe the description. The name is where the confusion starts, and it is the cheapest place to fix it.
What to tell the relative who told you about it
Usually somebody heard something second-hand, and the version that reaches a family is a compressed one.
Three corrections worth making gently.
"It is a doctor course." It is a doctoral-level pharmacy degree. The graduate is a pharmacist working clinically, not a physician.
"It is a shortcut to medicine." It is not, and it is not intended to be. Six years for a qualification you did not want is an expensive way to discover that.
"It is easier than MBBS." Different, not easier. Six years, a hospital internship, and a discipline in which being wrong about a dose matters.
The right reason to choose Pharm D is that you want to be the person on a ward who knows the medicines better than anybody else in the room. If that appeals, it is a good degree. If what appeals is the word in the title, it is not.
Where we sit
JKKN College of Pharmacy, also recorded as JKK Nattraja College of Pharmacy, at Komarapalayam, Tamil Nadu 638183, is approved by the Pharmacy Council of India, affiliated to The Tamil Nadu Dr. M.G.R. Medical University, and holds a NAAC A Grade.
Recorded intake: Pharm.D 30 and Pharm.D Post Baccalaureate 10, alongside B.Pharm 100, B.Pharm Lateral Entry 12, M.Pharm 60 and a limited Ph.D intake. Our recorded annual management-quota Pharm D fee is Rs 2,75,000 for a day scholar or Rs 3,25,000 with hostel; government-quota fees are as per Government norms.
Seats, approvals and fees from the JKKN facts master sheet, 30 July 2026. Name, affiliation and address read live from pharmacy.jkkn.ac.in on 31 July 2026. The Pharm D page describes the programme and the fee structure page carries the operative fee.
If you searched "form D" and got here, you now have the right word. Use it, and the rest of the process gets considerably easier.
Frequently asked questions
What is the "form D" course?
There is no such course. It is a mishearing of Pharm D, short for Doctor of Pharmacy — a six-year clinical pharmacy degree. Searching "Pharm D" instead will find the approved college lists and admission notifications that "form D" will not.
Is it Pharm.D, PharmD or Pharma D?
Pharm.D, Pharm D and PharmD are all correct written forms. "Pharma D" is a common slip — "pharma" refers to the industry rather than the degree.
Is a Pharm D graduate a doctor?
A Pharm D graduate is a pharmacist with a doctoral-level professional degree in pharmacy, not a physician. The qualification does not train you in medicine or surgery and does not permit practising medicine or diagnosing as a physician does.
Can Pharm D graduates use the "Dr" prefix?
The position has been debated in India and is a matter for the relevant councils rather than for a college website. Ask the Pharmacy Council of India and the relevant medical council for the current position rather than relying on any college page.
Is Pharm D the same as MBBS?
No. Pharm D is a pharmacy degree regulated by the Pharmacy Council of India that trains clinical pharmacists; MBBS is a medical degree that trains physicians. They are different qualifications with different regulators and different work.
What is Pharm D Post Baccalaureate?
A shorter route into the same Pharm D degree for candidates who already hold a B.Pharm, sometimes written Pharm.D PB. It is a different entry point rather than a different qualification.