What Is Pharmaceutics? Flashcards
Define “drug”
“Chemical substances used to diagnose, treat or prevent disease or intent to affect the structure or any function of the body”
“Drug” is also known as ….
Active ingredient
Medicinal ingredient
Pharmacological ingredient
Active principle
Therapeutic agent
Active pharmaceutical ingredient (API)
Define “medicine”
Delivery systems for administering drugs to the body in a safe, effective, accurate, reproducible and convenient manner
“Medicine” is also known as…
Dosage form
Formulation
Preparation
Medicinal product
Pharmaceutical product
Define “Excipients”
Medicines contain a drug (API) and other inactive ingredients called excipients
Excipients are inactive ingredients that serves as a vehicle or medium for a drug. They are used in the formulation of drug product for long-term stabilisation and render it suitable for administration
Define “Biopharmaceutics”
The study of how the physiochemical properties of the drug and medicine combine with physiological aspects of the delivery route to determine the rate and extent of absorption
An understanding of relevant body systems and how drugs arrive there following administration
What are physiochemical properties
Include: molecular weight, melting point, boiling point, vapour point, molecular polarity etc.
Define “physiological”
Relating to the way in which a living organism or bodily part functions.
Define “formulation”
Formulation is the act of designing a producing a medicine from first principles
Define “preformulation”
Preformulation is everything that needs to happen first with a new drug candidate, its the stage of development during which the physiochemical properties of the drug are characterised, established and understood. I.e. solubility, melting point, pKa, logP etc.
The process and final medicine/dosage form depends on…
Physiochemical properties of the drug
Biopharmaceutics
Disease factors - i.e. which part of the body is affected?
Patient accessibility - will they be able to swallow? Etc.
Define “manufacturing”
Includes both small scale (bench scale)
Intermediate scale
And large scale (industrial manufacturing)
When is “compounding” used?
Small scale manufacturing that is required when developing new formulations and when no commercial product is available is available and specials manufacture is required due to it being an unusual drug or not commonly made
What is compounding?
Drug compounding is the process of combining, mixing or altering ingredients to create a medication tailored to the needs of an individual patient. Compounding includes the combining of two or more drugs
What is product performance testing?
Once a medicine has been made it use be tested as it is required to meet many standards and to ensure that it contains the right drug, at the right dosage and behaves the way it is intended.
These tests/standards are in the British pharmacopeia
