The pharmaceutical sciences are a group of interdisciplinary areas of study concerned with the design, action, delivery, disposition, inorganic, physical, biochemical and analytical biology (anatomy and physiology, biochemistry, cell biology, and molecular biology), epidemiology, statistics, chemometrics, mathematics, physics, and chemical engineering, and applies their principles to the study of drugs.
The pharmaceutical sciences are further subdivided into several specific specialties, with four main branches:
As new discoveries advance and extend the pharmaceutical sciences, subspecialties continue to be added to this list. Importantly, as knowledge advances, boundaries between these specialty areas of pharmaceutical sciences are beginning to blur. Many fundamental concepts are common to all pharmaceutical sciences. These shared fundamental concepts further the understanding of their applicability to all aspects of pharmaceutical research and drug therapy.
Pharmaceutics is the discipline of pharmacy that deals with the process of turning a new chemical entity (NCE) into a medication to be used safely and effectively by patients. It is also called the science of dosage form design. There are many chemicals with pharmacological properties, but need special measures to help them achieve therapeutically relevant amounts at their sites of action. Pharmaceutics helps relate the formulation of drugs to their delivery and
disposition in the body. Pharmaceutics deals with the formulation of a pure drug substance into a dosage form.
Branches of pharmaceutics include:
Pure drug substances are usually white crystalline or amorphous powders. Historically before the advent of medicine as a science it was common for pharmacists to dispense drugs as is, most drugs today are administered as parts of a dosage form. The clinical performance of drugs depends on their form of presentation to the patient.
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The pharmaceutical sciences are further subdivided into several specific specialties, with four main branches:
- Pharmacology: the study of the biochemical and physiological effects of drugs on human beings.
- Pharmacodynamics: the study of the cellular and molecular interactions of drugs with their receptors. Simply "What the drug does to the body"
- Pharmacokinetics: the study of the factors that control the concentration of drug at various sites in the body. Simply "What the body does to the drug"
- Pharmaceutical toxicology: the study of the harmful or toxic effects of drugs.
- Pharmacogenomics: the study of the inheritance of characteristic patterns of interaction between drugs and
- organisms.
- Pharmaceutical chemistry: the study of drug design to optimize pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, and synthesis of new drug molecules (Medicinal Chemistry).
- Pharmaceutics: the study and design of drug formulation for optimum delivery, stability, pharmacokinetics, and patient acceptance.
- Pharmacognosy: the study of medicines derived from natural sources.
As new discoveries advance and extend the pharmaceutical sciences, subspecialties continue to be added to this list. Importantly, as knowledge advances, boundaries between these specialty areas of pharmaceutical sciences are beginning to blur. Many fundamental concepts are common to all pharmaceutical sciences. These shared fundamental concepts further the understanding of their applicability to all aspects of pharmaceutical research and drug therapy.
Pharmaceutics is the discipline of pharmacy that deals with the process of turning a new chemical entity (NCE) into a medication to be used safely and effectively by patients. It is also called the science of dosage form design. There are many chemicals with pharmacological properties, but need special measures to help them achieve therapeutically relevant amounts at their sites of action. Pharmaceutics helps relate the formulation of drugs to their delivery and
disposition in the body. Pharmaceutics deals with the formulation of a pure drug substance into a dosage form.
Branches of pharmaceutics include:
- Pharmaceutical formulation
- Pharmaceutical manufacturing
- Dispensing Pharmacy
- Pharmaceutical Technology
- Physical Pharmacy
- Pharmaceutical Jurispundence
Pure drug substances are usually white crystalline or amorphous powders. Historically before the advent of medicine as a science it was common for pharmacists to dispense drugs as is, most drugs today are administered as parts of a dosage form. The clinical performance of drugs depends on their form of presentation to the patient.
Click here to browse books on Pharmaceutical Science