intro to dosage forms

INTRODUCTION TO DRUGS, DOSAGE FORMS, AND DRUG DELIVERY SYSTEMS

  • 01 Drugs Defined

  • 02 The Heritage of Pharmacy

  • 03 Drug Standards

DRUGS DEFINED

  • A drug is defined as an agent intended for use in the diagnosis, mitigation, treatment, cure, or prevention of disease in humans or in other animals.

  • New drugs may be derived from:

    • Plant or animal sources

    • By-products of microbial growth

    • Chemical synthesis

    • Molecular modification

    • Biotechnology

  • The drug’s site and rate of absorption, its pattern of distribution and concentration within the body, its duration of action, and the method and rate of elimination or excretion must be studied.

  • diagnosis - ex: BaSO4 (radiopaque)

  • mitigation (reducing) - type I diabetes→ insulin

  • treatment - hypertension/parkinsons

  • cure - antibiotics (from infection)

  • prevent - doxycycline (prophylaxis against leptospirosis)

    • vaccines (are drugs)

  • plant - lagundi

  • animal - insulin

  • microbial growth - penicillin

  • chemical synthesis - most drugs

  • molecular modification - some drugs

  • biotechnology - vaccines/monochromatic

THE HERITAGE OF PHARMACY

The First Apothecary

  • Pharmakon connotes a charm or a drug that can be used for good or for evil.

Early Drugs

  • Ebers papyrus – discovered by Georg Ebers

    • Contains 800 formulas or prescriptions

    • More than 700 drugs mentioned

Introduction of the Scientific Viewpoint

  1. Hippocrates

    • Introduction of scientific pharmacy and medicine

    • Father of medicine

  2. Dioscorides

    • De materia medica

    • Opium, ergot, hyoscyamus

  3. Claudius Galen

    • “Galenic pharmacy”

    • Galen’s cerate

  4. Emperor Frederick II

    • Pharmacy separated from medicine for the first time

  5. Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim (Paracelsus)

    • Botanical science to chemical science

Early Research

  1. Karl William Scheele

    • Discovered lactic acid, citric acid, oxalic acid, tartaric acid, and arsenic acid

    • Identified glycerin

    • Invented new methods of preparing calomel and benzoic acid

    • Discovered oxygen

  2. Friedrich Serturner

    • Isolated morphine from opium

  3. Joseph Caventou and Joseph Pelletier

    • Isolated quinine and cinchocaine, strychnine and brucine

  4. Pierre Robiquet

    • Isolated caffeine with Pelletier

    • Independently separated codeine from opium

DRUG STANDARDS

  • Pharmacopoeia – comes from the Greek “pharmakon” (drug) and “poiein” (make). The combination indicates any recipe or formula.

  • British Pharmacopoeia – replaced three city pharmacopeia in Great Britain.

  • Lilitz Pharmacopeia – first American pharmacopeia.

  • United States Pharmacopeia

“It is the object of a Pharmacopeia to select from among substances which possess medicinal power, those, the utility of which is most fully established and best understood; and to form from them preparations and compositions, in which their powers may be exerted to the greatest advantage. It should likewise distinguish those articles by convenient and definite names, such as may prevent trouble or uncertainty in the intercourse of physicians and apothecaries.”

  • Today, the United States Pharmacopeia National Formulary (USP-NF) is continuously revised.

  • “Products” = manufactured drugs

  • “Preparations” = compounded drugs