Pharmaceutical Drug Delivery Systems

Fundamentals of Pharmacy/Pharmacology: The Science of Medicines

•  This unit covers the fundamentals of pharmacy and pharmacology, focusing on the science of medicines.
•  Lecture 1 introduces the unit's topics.
•   An outline is provided detailing topics like the reasoning behind the study of the science of medicine, pharmaceutics, the medicine approval process, the journey of a medicine, teaching and learning methods, assessment procedures, support and help resources.
•  Year One units are broken down in Pharmacy and Pharmacology, detailing specific subjects with credit values.
•  Why study the science of medicines? This is a core topic exploring the chemistry of drugs, drug discovery and the connection to health and disease
• The science of medicines: This encompasses topics such as drug discovery and the chemistry of drugs associated with health and disease in the context of delivery to the patient.
• "From bench to bedside" illustrates the journey a new treatment takes to become an NHS prescription, taking 10+ years from drug discovery to getting the drug available for patients. This process involves stages like lab testing, clinical trials, marketing authorisation, initial price setting, and appraisal by NICE and then to funding decision and availability.
• Pharmaceutics: Key study point involving drug formulation, drug delivery systems and biopharmaceutics.

Science of Medicines = PHARMACEUTICS

• Drug formulation. This involves accounting for physicochemical drug properties, stability, and delivery routes to produce an appropriate dosage form.
• Drug delivery systems. This explores the innovative methods of improving drug efficacy, patient compliance and reducing side effects, by targeting drugs to specific cells/tissues.
• Biopharmaceutics. The study of drug absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion (ADME) following administration, to aid the design of dosage forms.
• Quality control. Ensuring quality, identity, dosage, and safety throughout the manufacturing process of a medicine.
• Regulatory science. The science of developing new tools, standards, and approaches to assess the safety, efficacy, quality, and performance of medicines.

The journey of a medicine

•  This unit focuses on turning a drug into a medicine and what happens once it's taken/delivered to the patient.
• Drug properties, such as molecular weight, lipophilicity, ionization, solubility, dissolution rate, and chemical stability affect the development of the drug delivery system.
•  The content covers drug properties and how they are used in drug delivery system development, concerning different delivery routes. These include: Lipophilicity, Ionization, Solubility vs pH, Dissolution rate, Chemical stability, and Particle size, crystallinity and hygroscopicity for solid drugs; and Compatibility with excipients and packaging materials.
• Illustrates the process through the diagram of a drug being transformed into a medicine and how it affects the patient.

Dosage forms

•  Visual examples of diverse dosage forms
• Different dosage forms exist depending on the specific drug, desired effects, patient characteristics, and admin route
•  Illustrates various dosage forms, like tablets and pills, capsules, solutions, creams, ointments, injections, inhalers, etc.,

Effects of drug

•  (physicochemical properties), dosage form and physiology on release and absorption
• This section discusses the organs involved in drug's journey into, around, and out of the body, with an overview on ADME and pharmacokinetic components
•  The detailed analysis of different elements that influence both the release and absorption of a drug in the body. This is connected to the different organ systems of the body and their parts.

Unit overview (MPharm)

• Provides a detailed breakdown of the unit's syllabus and schedule.
•  Includes week-by-week lecture schedules, workshops, and tutorials.
• Includes links and guidance pertaining to assessments for different semesters.

Unit overview (Pharmacology)

•  A summary of the unit, including weekly schedules, workshops, and assessments; with links to resources.

Semester 1 & 2 topics

• Key topics for each semester of the unit presented in an organised list format

Learning outcomes

• Summarizes the key learning outcomes of the unit and the unit's overall objectives.

Teaching on the unit

• Explains the teaching strategies for the unit.

Teaching on the unit – MPharm only

• Describes additional teaching approaches specifically for MPharm students.

Problem-based learning (PBL) – MPharm only

• Presents the approach and detailed tasks for the problem-based learning component of the unit. Explains what to expect in the workshops.

Assessment

•  A breakdown of assessments for the MPharm and Pharmacology parts of the unit, detailing the components of each examination, and the necessary scores required to pass the unit. 

Moodle

• Information on access, resources, and communication tools available through the Moodle platform for this course.

Semester 1 topics

• Detailed outline of topics covered during semester one, in the list format.

Semester 2 topics

• Detailed outline of topics covered during semester two. Presented in a list format.

What is a medicine?

• Definition of medicine and its components, along with examples of brands and generics. 

Medicinal product nomenclature

• Details about the naming convention for medicinal products, differentiating between brand names, chemical names, and trademarks.

Branded Drugs

• How new medicines are marketed as branded products, the process of obtaining marketing authorization (MA), and the role of patents. 

Patent vs Marketing Life

• An illustrative graph representing the correlation between patent and marketing lifetimes for drugs.

Pharmaceutical Research & Development (R&D) Industry

• This section covers the purpose and processes of the pharmaceutical R&D industry.

Pharmaceutical R&D Industry

•  Focuses on the need for market growth and funding the next generation of compounds, including the need for a pipeline of new chemical entities (NCEs).

Astra Zeneca Pipeline (2014)

•  Provides a detailed breakdown of Astra Zeneca's drug pipeline, categorizing the compounds by their type and stage.

Pharmaceutical R&D companies have a mixed portfolio of products

•  Illustrates the portfolio mix of pharmaceutical R&D companies.

Global Distribution of Pharmaceutical Sales

•  Visually represents the global distribution of pharmaceutical sales, showing percentages allocated to different countries.

Medicines expenditure per person

•  Provides a table comparison of medicines expenditure per person in different countries, including monetary figures

What $250 of Qvar looks like ...

•  Visually compares the equivalent price of prescription medications for different purchases.

Blockbuster drug model

• Overview of the blockbuster drug model in the pharmaceutical industry.

Other sections

•  More detailed study points from the remaining pages of slides. This covers different aspects of drug delivery, as well as drug testing methodologies