Barbara Schug studied pharmacy at Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelm-Universität, Bonn, she received a scholarship from the "Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes" and was awarded a doctor’s degree for experimental pharmacological work.

She started her professional career at Zentrallaboratorium Deutscher Apotheker, Eschborn. In 1998 she founded, together with Prof Dr Henning Blume, an independent research institute, SocraTec R&D. In 2007 she founded SocraMetrics, an independent biometrical institute. She is currently managing shareholder in both companies.

Her area of work covers the planning and realisation of early phase (I and II) trials in healthy subjects and patients and she is also responsible for phase-III and phase-IV studies realised by her companies. Alongside the chemically defined medicinal substances, work is focussing on biotech medicines including biosimilars, non-biological complex drugs, herbal medicines and endogenous compounds. This work has led to more than 90 scientific publications so far.

Dr Schug is a member of numerous national and international scientific societies, including Deutsche Pharmazeutische Gesellschaft (DPhG), Arbeitsgemeinschaft für angewandte Humanpharmakologie (AGAH), Deutsche Gesellschaft für Pharmazeutische Medizin (DGPharMed), European Federation of Pharmaceutical Sciences (EUFEPS) and Gesellschaft für Dermopharmazie.

She has been an active member of the organisational committee of the German Pharmacokinetic / Pharmacodynamic Experts Conference for many years. Furthermore, she is active member of the EUFEPS Network on Bioavailability and Biopharmaceutics and in this function she is member of the organising committee of the Global Bioequivalence Harmonisation Conference (next: Dec 2019 in Rockville, USA). Furthermore, she is co-founder and active member of the EUFEPS Network on Dermatopharmacy. And finally she is currently Past President of AGAH.