Recently pharmaceuticals are emerging as a major source of pollution for the environment. It has been well observed that the effluent discharge from hospitals has an eminent quantity of chemical waste as antibiotics, disinfectants and other treatments wastes. Pharmaceutical effluents are bioactive and their existence in the environment has been found harmful to both aquatic life and humans. In developing countries, untreated wastewaters are discharged to local water bodies by just following the local regulations. The current global challenges including high population growth rate and climate change have contributed to the widespread epidemics and emergence of diseases. Besides intractable and decaying antibiotic system, hospitals emit pathogenic waste during treatment process that can lead to situations where a total ban on hospital effluent are needed, for instance in multiple cases where discharge lead to strain on nature and quality of water. In case of pharmaceutical residues, it has been observed that only 18–32% of the pharmaceutical residues could be degraded by the secondary treatment of these seven technologies and it has been increased to 30–65% by tertiary treatment. As far as the pharmaceutical residues are concerned, it has been observed that MBR removes the residues with the efficiency of 28–100%, varying for each pharmaceutical. This paper reviews the existing treatment processes, their advantages and future perspective of this emerging area. •Ozone assisted oxidation treatment provides a significant improvement in pharmaceuticals removal.•At low pH, pharmaceuticals need less ozone while ozone lifetime increases.•Extensive investigation of intermediate compounds formed in various treatment processes is essential for complete treatment.•Aerobic, Anaerobic and Facultative ponds are future technologies for the removal of AbS with less energy requirements.