pharma

[fahr-muh]

See more synonyms for pharma on Thesaurus.com

noun

a pharmaceutical company.
Also called big pharma. pharmaceutical companies, considered collectively: Pharma is expanding into China, hoping to replace local remedies with manufactured drugs.

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Origin of pharma

First recorded in 1990-95; short for pharmaceutical

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for pharma

Contemporary Examples

Compared with Pharma, compounders are very lightly regulated.
Blame Game Underway as Meningitis Outbreak Broadens
Kent Sepkowitz
October 10, 2012
Taxes on pharma and medical devices would remain, while managed-care and hospital companies would suffer big losses.
How the Supreme Court’s Health-Care Ruling Will Move the Markets
Alex Klein
June 21, 2012
Zedlmayer called for a full "eco system": Pharma, R&D, the works.
Barbara Bush: Young Leaders Can Solve the Global Health Crisis
Casey Schwartz
March 9, 2012
Even if the Blunt amendment had passed, Pharma would still do well.
Peter Schweizer: Big Pharma’s Role in the Contraception Debate
Peter Schweizer
March 2, 2012
Pharma runs this country and we the patients are the trusting losers.
My War on Cancer
Suzanne Somers
November 8, 2009

Historical Examples

The appetite-suppressing hormones had been used in the Mexican pharma industry for years.
Makers
Cory Doctorow

British Dictionary definitions for pharma

pharma

noun

pharmaceutical companies when considered together as an industry

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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012