Intro Flashcards
What is Pharmacy?
Pharmacy is the health profession that links the health sciences with the chemical sciences, ensuring the safe use of medication.
It includes both traditional roles like compounding and dispensing medications and modern patient care services.
What are the four broad areas of pharmacy education?
- Pharmaceutics
- Pharmacology
- Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry
- Pharmacy Practice
Define Pharmaceutics.
The study and application of physical and physicochemical properties of substances used in medicine to the formulation and production of medicinal products.
It includes pharmaceutical formulations, dispensing, technology, and microbiology.
What does Pharmacology study?
The biological action and use of drugs, including their effects on human diseases and their chemotherapy.
It also covers drug side effects and biotransformation.
What is Pharmaceutical Chemistry?
A branch of applied chemistry that includes organic, inorganic, physical, medicinal, and analytical chemistry related to drug actions and interactions.
It studies the structure and properties of chemical substances used in medicine.
What is Biopharmacy?
The aspect that deals with the properties of drug dosage forms in the body affecting bioavailability and therapeutic effectiveness.
List some areas where trained pharmacists can work.
- Community pharmacy
- Hospital pharmacy
- Clinical pharmacy
- Industrial pharmacy
- Consulting pharmacy
- Regulatory pharmacy
What is the role of a Community Pharmacist?
To provide access to medications and advice for safe and effective use of medicines, including managing drug interactions.
What does a Hospital Pharmacist do?
Manages medications in a hospital setting, collaborates with health professionals, and may be involved in clinical trials and compounding.
They also educate medical staff on drug safety.
What is Clinical Pharmacy?
A discipline that ensures optimal use of medications through drug information and monitoring for safety and efficacy.
Define Industrial Pharmacy.
Involves the pharmaceutical industry, including research, production, packaging, quality control, marketing, and sales of pharmaceutical goods.
What is a Compounding Pharmacy?
A pharmacy that produces and prepares medicines in new forms tailored to individual patient needs.
What does Consulting Pharmacy focus on?
The theoretical review of medications rather than dispensing, often providing services in nursing homes or patient homes.
What is Ambulatory Care Pharmacy?
Provides healthcare services to patients, especially in rural areas, managing those at higher risk for drug-related problems.
What is the purpose of Regulatory Pharmacy?
To create rules and regulations for the safe use of medicine to promote positive health outcomes.
What are Dosage Forms?
Delivery systems by which medicinal agents are administered to the body, including their formulation with active ingredients and excipients.
What are excipients?
Inactive components in pharmaceutical formulations that aid in the preparation and performance of dosage forms.
List some functions of excipients.
- Provide shape to the formulation
- Increase stability
- Enhance palatability
- Improve elegance
Why are dosage forms important?
- Deliver precise dosages safely
- Cover bitter taste or odor
- Provide controlled-release methods
- Protect drugs from stomach acid
What are the components of dosage form development?
- Preformulation studies
- Dosage form design
- Laboratory formulation
- Pilot plant scale-up
- Large scale production
- Quality assurance
What is the objective of dosage form design?
To create formulations that can be administered effectively to achieve specific therapeutic actions.
What do preformulation studies establish?
The properties of the drug and excipients, their compatibility, and help in selecting excipients for drug formulation.
What must be considered in designing dosage forms?
- Physicochemical properties of the drug
- Biopharmaceutical factors
- Desired therapeutic effect
- Patient condition
Fill in the blank: A drug may be defined as an agent intended for use in the _______.
[diagnosis, mitigation, treatment, cure, or prevention of disease]
What is the goal of a formulation in drug delivery?
To deliver the drug molecule to the desired site of the body at the right concentration
What factors must be considered in designing dosage forms?
Physicochemical properties of the drug, biopharmaceutical factors, desired therapeutic effect, patient condition
What is the initial step in laboratory formulation?
Small-scale laboratory production
Why can’t formulation scientists go straight into large-scale production?
Because it may fail quality control tests
What is necessary for a laboratory formulation to progress?
It must be of acceptable quality
What is involved in pilot plant scale-up?
Evaluation of laboratory formula, equipment, and production processes
What items are considered during pilot plant scale-up?
- Equipment qualifications
- Process validation
- Preventative maintenance requirements
- Process review
- Standard operating procedures
- Personnel requirements
What supports good manufacturing practices (GMP)?
Appropriate records and reports
What does dosage form manufacture involve?
Large-scale production of products using the final design of the dosage form
What influences the type and series of operations in dosage form manufacture?
The nature of the drug and the dosage form being desired
What is Quality Assurance (QA)?
A way of preventing defects in manufactured products
What are the two approaches of Quality Assurance?
- Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP)
- Quality Control (QC)
What does GMP encompass?
Use of appropriate personnel, materials, standard operating procedures (SOP), and facilities
What does Quality Control (QC) involve?
Testing of products for quality to ensure they meet specifications
What types of QC tests are required for tablets?
Tests for mechanical and release properties
What types of QC tests are required for suspensions?
Tests for sedimentation and pourability
What types of QC tests are required for injections?
Tests for sterility and turbidity
What are the various processes involved in transforming a medicinal agent into a product?
- Preformulation studies
- Dosage form design
- Formulation studies
- Production scale-up
- Manufacture
- Quality Assurance (QA)
