Science Of Medicines

Question 1

What is the difference between a medicine and a drug

Answer 1

A medicine is what is administered to a patient
A drug is the active substance present in the dosage form

Question 2

What must a drug do in order to be useful

Answer 2

Reach its site of action

Question 3

What is biopharmaceutics

Answer 3

Study of the factors which modify the performance of pharmaceutical dosage forms and how this information can be used to optimise drug delivery systems

Question 4

What is pharmacodynamics

Answer 4

What the drug does to the body

Question 5

What is pharmacokinetics

Answer 5

What the body does to the drug

Question 6

What can pharmacokinetics be characterised into

Answer 6

ADME
absorption
Distribution
Metabolism
Excretion

Question 7

What is bioavailability

Answer 7

A quantitive measure of the amount of a drug that reaches its site of action and the rate at which it gets there

Question 8

How to measure a drugs presence at the site of action (given the drug has been absorbed into the systemic circulation via an injection or oral administration)
What kind of medicines would this not be useful to measure?

Answer 8

Taking a blood test
Eye drops or creams as not much of the drug would reach the blood stream