pharmacy vs pharmaceutical scientist

which one actually includes working in a lab and producing drugs and stuff since I don't want to do a pharmacy degree only to end up dispensing medicine and talking to people at clinics 😅

to my understanding you can work researching in a lab with both a pharmacology (or similar degree) or pharmacy degree but only a pharmacy degree give the option to work in a pharmacy or hospital. this is only my understanding as this is what my sister had applied for. applying to a pharmacy (MPharm) course requires an interview but it’s very informal and short as it is a requirement my the governing body of pharmacists. i hope this is helpful

which one actually includes working in a lab and producing drugs and stuff since I don't want to do a pharmacy degree only to end up dispensing medicine and talking to people at clinics 😅

which one actually includes working in a lab and producing drugs and stuff since I don't want to do a pharmacy degree only to end up dispensing medicine and talking to people at clinics 😅

If you really want to do drug discovery amd development, please go for medicinal chemistry!! I am a pharmacist and I studied all of them, from the discovery to development and clinical aspects, so I can be flexible in my work. But If you really want to focus on one specific area, I suggest you go for chemistry since pharmaceutical science would mostly only cover the development aspect of drug, not the discovery!

If you really want to do drug discovery amd development, please go for medicinal chemistry!! I am a pharmacist and I studied all of them, from the discovery to development and clinical aspects, so I can be flexible in my work. But If you really want to focus on one specific area, I suggest you go for chemistry since pharmaceutical science would mostly only cover the development aspect of drug, not the discovery!

A pharmacy degree trains you to be a pharmacist. If you want to be involved in the technical side of drug development and manufacture, you'd want to do (depending on the exact area you are interested in) a course in some area of biosciences (for example pharmacology), chemistry (including more specialistt courses like medicinal chemistry), pharmaceutical sciences, or chemical/process engineering.
A degree in pharmacy may also be suitable background for going into some of those technical areas but that is not the primary intention of that course and you'd end up spending a fair bit of time preparing to be a pharmacist rather than engaging in scientific research preparation activities.
For the "business" side of the pharma industry any degree in principle should be fine in most cases. For the regulatory side I imagine you'd probably either need a professional registration (e.g. as a pharmacist) or be a lawyer of some variety...?

if I did do a medicinal chemistry degree what careers would that lead me to?

so if I wanted to synthesise drugs in labs would that be a pharmacologist?
because I saw videos of pharmacists & pharmacy students doing lab work like that so I’m a bit confused about what they actually do

Of course pharmacy students will do labwork to illustrate the theory. However the course isn't structured around preparing for (academic) research, whereas a "basic science" degree in the bioscience or chemistry fields would be. That's not to say you can't do more of that kind of stuff in a pharmacy degree but that is not the point of a pharmacy degree. Therefore if your goal is not to become a pharmacist, a pharmacy degree offers nothing that any other degree can and may not be the best preparation either.