A second opportunity for students who want to pursue a pharmaceutical career is coming to Maine.

The goal of a new agreement announced Thursday between the University of Maine in Orono and the University of New England in southern Maine is to address the state’s critical shortage of pharmacists while expanding biomedical research capabilities.

The public-private relationship between the universities includes an agreement with Maine Medical Center in Portland and other health care facilities to provide clinical and internship opportunities.

Last month, Husson College in Bangor announced that it had been approved for a six-year pharmacy program to begin in 2008 with its first doctorates in pharmacy to be awarded in 2014.

“We knew it was coming down the pike,” Husson President William Beardsley said Thursday in a phone interview. “There’s a lot of students out there. There’s a lot of demand, and I believe there’s room for two institutions.”

UM President Robert Kennedy agreed.

“I really feel that they’re very different programs,” he said by phone, adding that UNE and UM will provide a heavy focus on research and clinical studies.

UNE officials plan to locate the new College of Pharmacy on the university’s Westbrook College campus in Portland.

The initiatives by Husson and UM-UNE could clearly affect pharmacy students who have had to leave the state to study.

Megan Mooers, 21, is a senior in the School of Pharmacy at the University of Connecticut and is originally from Bangor. With two years of graduate school remaining, she said Thursday in an e-mail she would have stayed in Maine had she been given the opportunity and intends to return to the area after graduating in 2009.

“As a senior in high school looking at colleges, I knew that I wanted to pursue a degree in pharmacy, but I was extremely hesitant to leave home,” Mooers wrote.

Born and raised in Bangor, she was intimidated by the thought of moving across three states to attend college.

“I would have definitely applied to pharmacy schools in Maine if they were offered at my time of graduation,” she wrote. She applied to pharmacy schools in New England.

Bill Miller, owner of Miller Drug in Bangor, said Thursday he isn’t sure two pharmacy schools in Maine is such a good idea.

“To go from none to two doesn’t make sense,” Miller said in an interview. “I certainly would support both endeavors, but I question whether it’s practical for both to open at the same time.”

His concern isn’t just that there are enough students, but whether there are enough professors interested in coming to Maine.

Both Kennedy and Beardsley said that shouldn’t be a problem. The programs and schools are distinct enough that each should attract a different kind of student and faculty, Kennedy said.

“I don’t see a direct competition on either end of this new pharmacy program,” he said.

UM isn’t expected to incur any cost to start the program as the faculty and classes needed for the first couple of years already are in place. Officials anticipate that revenue from the program will pay for additional staff and potential laboratory renovations.

The closest schools to Bangor offering such programs are the University of Rhode Island, the University of Connecticut, the Massachusetts School of Pharmacy and Northeastern University. Each is about a five-hour commute.

Although students receive a tuition break through the New England Board of Higher Education because Maine has no pharmacy colleges, an in-state program would save students money.

The college’s founding dean will be John Cormier, former dean of the College of Pharmacy at the Medical University of South Carolina. Cormier served as a principal consultant to UNE during the university’s most recent exploration of the pharmacy initiative.

The college will offer students a choice of doctoral degree options that will prepare them to be pharmacists or pharmaceutical scientists. Approximately 100 pre-pharmacy students will enter the program in fall 2007. The pre-pharmacy phase is the first two years of a six-year degree program.

The four-year professional program will accept its first class as early as fall 2008 and no later than fall 2009, depending on the completion of facilities and external funding.

“I think that the demand for pharmacists, as well as the increase in student interest in pharmacy, is great enough to accommodate two schools,” Mooers wrote. “I think that many students in Maine, as well as neighboring states, would have great interest in the program. I also think that some students, like myself, may be hesitant to pursue pharmacy because of the limited number of schools close to Maine, and perhaps these two schools will allow students to study what they truly desire.”