Physicochemical Principles of Drug Formulation and Delivery

What you’ll be able to do

• State the major physical and chemical properties of drugs and excipients that influence the performance of drugs and dosage forms.

• Apply the different expressions for the concentrations and doses of drug products, and convert different expressions for concentrations and doses.

• Apply thermodynamic principles to important equilibria in pharmaceutical systems, including isotonicity, acid-base equilibrium, binding equilibrium, partition, hygroscopicity, and solubility.

• Propose procedures to prepare isotonic solutions and buffered solutions.

• Understand suspensions and colloids and their role in drug formulations

• Calculate the distribution of drugs between aqueous and lipid phases based on the principle of partition.

• Identify the different solid phases of the same drug and predict their impact on drug performance.

• Predict the aqueous solubility of drugs and its dependence on pH, common ions, and solid forms, and understand its impact on drug performance.

• Predict shelf life and suggest storage conditions from reaction rate constants and orders of reactions.

• State the major factors that influence the chemical stability of drugs (e.g., temperature, humidity, light, pH, oxygen, and free radicals) and the common reaction mechanisms (e.g., hydrolysis and oxidation), and propose approaches to stabilization and extending the expiration date of drug products (e.g., pH control, antioxidants, and packaging).

Source: UW Guide