Pharmaceutics is the discipline of
pharmacy
Pharmacy is the science and practice of discovering, producing, preparing, dispensing, reviewing and monitoring medications, aiming to ensure the safe, effective, and affordable use of medicines. It is a miscellaneous science as it links heal ...
that deals with the process of turning a
new chemical entity A new chemical entity (NCE) is, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, a novel, small, chemical molecule drug that is undergoing clinical trials or has received a first approval (not a new use) by the FDA in any other application submit ...
(NCE) or old drugs 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:
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Pharmaceutical formulation
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Pharmaceutical manufacturing
Pharmaceutical manufacturing is the process of industrial-scale synthesis of pharmaceutical drugs as part of the pharmaceutical industry. The process of drug manufacturing can be broken down into a series of unit operations, such as milling, gra ...
*Dispensing pharmacy
*Pharmaceutical technology
*
Physical pharmacy
Physical pharmacy is the branch of pharmacy that concentrates on the applications of physics and chemistry to the study of pharmacy. In other words, it is the study of the effects that dosage forms have on their environment by addressing issues at ...
*
Pharmaceutical jurisprudence
A medication (also called medicament, medicine, pharmaceutical drug, medicinal drug or simply drug) is a drug used to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent disease. Drug therapy (pharmacotherapy) is an important part of the medical field and rel ...
Pure drug substances are usually white
crystalline or
amorphous
In condensed matter physics and materials science, an amorphous solid (or non-crystalline solid, glassy solid) is a solid that lacks the long-range order that is characteristic of a crystal.
Etymology
The term comes from the Greek ''a'' ("wi ...
powders. 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.
See also
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List of pharmaceutical companies
This listing is limited to those independent companies and subsidiaries notable enough to have their own articles in Wikipedia. Both going concerns and defunct firms are included, as well as firms that were part of the pharmaceutical industry ...
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Pharmacognosy
Pharmacognosy is the study of medicinal plants and other natural substances as sources of drugs. The American Society of Pharmacognosy defines pharmacognosy as "the study of the physical, chemical, biochemical, and biological properties of drug ...
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Pharmaceutical industry
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Nicholas Culpeper – 17th-century English physician who translated and used "pharmocological texts"
References
External links
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Excipient selection for injectable / parenteral formulations
Life sciences industry
Pharmacy
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