D’Youville College has started accepting applications for its new School of Pharmacy, which is on track to enroll its inaugural class next fall.

D’Youville, situated on Porter Avenue on the city’s West Side, would become only the second college in Western New York to offer a doctoral degree in pharmacy.

“We got several hundred applications already, and I think we’ll get more after the holidays,” said Gary P. Stoehr, dean of the new program.

The number of accredited pharmacy schools has increased in recent years, as the demand for pharmacists has grown in the United States.

The only other program locally is at the University at Buffalo, which founded its School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences in 1886 and is ranked among the best pharmacy schools in the nation. St. John Fisher College in Rochester started a pharmacy school in 2006.

D’Youville still needs the formal approval of the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education and the state Department of Education, but it was given the go-ahead to begin accepting applications for 65 slots in its inaugural class next August. Stoehr anticipates the program could gradually grow to as many as 360 students.

An on-site evaluation conducted in October went well, Stoehr said, and D’Youville is hoping for formal approval in January.

“It’s a big undertaking for D’Youville,” Stoehr said. “It’s not something you start lightly.”

D’Youville, which has carved out a niche for itself by offering a range of health-related programs, began planning for a six-year pharmacy program in 2007, has started hiring faculty for the department and has almost finished a $20 million, six-story building on campus to house the new program.

“It’s moving along according to schedule,” Stoehr said, “and as I understand it, it should be done at the end of January. The move-in date is in March.”