The performance of electrocoagulation method with aluminium, iron and hybrid Al/Fe sacrificial anodes in the treatment of arsenite [As(III)] and arsenate [As(V)] in pharmaceutical industrial effluents was investigated. Several working parameters, such as pH, current density, contact time and metal ion concentration, were studied in attempt to achieve optimum removal efficiency. The results obtained with synthetic samples revealed that the most effective removal of arsenite [As(III)] and arsenate [As(V)] can be achieved when the pH increased, whereas when there was increase in current density from 0.0082 to 0.0816 mA cm(-1) the treatment rate was improved. The removal efficiency was quite high using iron sacrificial electrodes compared to aluminium and hybrid Al/Fe electrodes. By using this treatment method, a pharmaceutical industrial wastewater containing 28 ppm of As was removed to a level of 0.005 ppm within 15 min. This method was found efficient, relatively fast and clean compared to other conventional methods, such as chemical coagulation.