Undergraduate - UnitPSC2222 - Formulation chemistry

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2014 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

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6 points, SCA Band 2, 0.125 EFTSL

Refer to the specific census and withdrawal dates for the semester(s) in which this unit is offered, or view unit timetables.

Level	Undergraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
Offered	Parkville Second semester 2014 (Day)
Coordinator(s)	Dr Richard Prankerd

Synopsis

This unit provides the conceptual and intellectual foundation for further studies in B Pharm Science (formulation stream) units in 3rd year. Broad areas covered include detailed study of chemical and physical stability in liquid and in solid pharmaceutical systems; overview of biotechnologically produced proteins, including their manufacture, characterization, stability and delivery; and a survey of the main pharmaceutical excipients.

Outcomes

On completion of the unit students will:

Solve problems using standard methods for quantitative analysis of concentration-time profiles, to obtain degradation rate constants, half-lives and shelf-lives;
Solve problems involving the physicochemical factors that influence reaction rates, especially the roles of temperature and acid-base equilibria;
Describe the common mechanisms for chemical degradation of typical organic drugs and excipients, and their applicability to new situations, with emphasis on

nucleophilic reactions
free radical reactions

Solve problems requiring application of methods for minimising the extent of degradation reactions, thus leading to increased life-times of formulated products;
Identify the conditions under which the kinetics involved in oxidation, photochemical and solid state degradation reactions can be separated into simple and complex models;
Describe the key physicochemical issues for therapeutic proteins, including formulation by lyophilisation;
Describe a wide range of common pharmaceutical excipient types, their physicochemical properties and their roles in formulations.