The research of Robert Koch and Louis Pasteur and the research centres they established paved the way to the development of microbiology, with many following generations of microbiologists gaining their knowledge at those institutions. In Poland, pharmaceutical microbiology as a separate and distinct branch of science emerged only after World War II, when the pharmaceutical industry started to grow.

The history of pharmaceutical microbiology includes also the history of pharmacopoeias and the requirements for microbiological quality of drugs and drug research methods they prescribe.