Abstract Pharmaceuticals are a wide class of chemicals used for human and veterinary purposes. As many other anthropogenic organic substances, they can be introduced into various aquatic ecosystems including marine and coastal waters via accidental incidents or spatial sources. Consequently, a variety of potential toxic effects on marine inhabitants that are inevitably exposed to those chemicals are provoked. The present study is a systematic review of the scientific literature that has been published up to 31/12/2022 regarding the scientific research which has been conducted and concerns the evaluation of potential toxic effects of pharmaceuticals on marine biota that belong to several different levels of the food chain. Based on the gathered information from the collected and classified articles, useful conclusions, and observations are reported about research trends. At the same time, knowledge gaps and weaknesses in the current research are identified and highlighted. Furthermore, suggestions for future research on this topic are also reported.