The study of pharmacology began at Queen's when the Faculty of Medicine was established in 1854, at which time the discipline was known as Materia Medica. Professor Fife Fowler was in charge of teaching the subject from the founding of the faculty until 1882, when he was appointed Dean of Medicine.
The discipline was taught within the Department of Medicine until the Department of Pharmacology, Materia Medica, Pharmacy, and Therapeutics emerged in the early 20th century. The department was renamed to Pharmacology in the 1930s and to Pharmacology and Toxicology in the 1980s.
In 2011, the School of Medicine merged its five Basic Sciences departments (Departments of Anatomy & Cell Biology, Biochemistry, Microbiology & Immunology, Pharmacology & Toxicology, and Physiology) into a new Department of Biomedical and Molecular Sciences.