Introduction to Pharmaceutical Chemistry: Scope and Objectives.

Pharmaceutical chemistry deals with the design, synthesis, analysis, and development of drugs and pharmaceuticals. Pharmaceutical chemistry plays an important role in drug discovery, drug development, and quality control/quality assurance. Its scope and objectives aim to improve drug molecule efficacy, safety, and accessibility of pharmaceuticals for the well-being of public health.

Scope of pharmaceutical chemistry

• 1. Drug discovery: Pharmaceutical chemistry involves in identification and development of new drug molecules. It explores natural sources and chemical synthesis with potential pharmacological activities.

• 2. Drug design: Pharmaceutical chemistry designs molecules with specific biological activities with minimum side effects. It takes help from computational modeling and structure-activity relationship studies.

• 3. Medicinal chemistry: Medicinal chemistry is the core subject of pharmaceutical chemistry. It deals with the optimization of drug molecules' chemical structure. It helps to enhance drug molecules' efficacy, safety, and bioavailability.

• 4. Drug formulation: Pharmaceutical chemistry deals with developing drug formulations such as tablets, capsules, injections, etc. It ensures proper drug delivery and patient compliance.

• 5. Analytical chemistry: Analytical chemistry deals with developing analytical methods for drug molecules. It ensures the quality of drug molecules and their formulations. It helps to meet government regulatory requirements for the drug molecules' safety and efficacy and formulations.

• 6. Quality control and quality assurance: Pharmaceutical chemistry ensures the quality of drug molecules.

• 7. Drug regulatory affairs: Pharmaceutical chemistry helps to meet complex government regulatory requirements.

• 8. Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics: Pharmaceutical chemistry helps in the study of drug molecules’ absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion (Pharmacokinetics). It also helps to study mechanism of drug action on the human body (Pharmacodynamics).

Objectives of Pharmaceutical Chemistry

• 1. New drug discovery: Pharmaceutical chemistry discovers new drug molecules to treat diseases.

• 2. Improve drug efficacy: Pharmaceutical chemistry enhances the effectiveness of the existing drug molecules. It helps to optimize chemical structure and formulation.

• 3. Drug safety: Pharmaceutical chemistry works to minimize the toxic effects of drug molecules to ensure patient safety.

• 4. Drug delivery: Pharmaceutical chemistry innovates new drug delivery systems and formulations to improve bioavailability and patient compliance.

• 5. Analytical methods: Pharmaceutical chemistry develops accurate and precise analytical methods to ensure the quality of drug molecules and their formulations.

• 6. Drug manufacturing optimization: Pharmaceutical chemistry helps to streamline drug manufacturing processes. This increases efficiency and reduces manufacturing costs.

• 7. Regulatory compliance: Pharmaceutical chemistry aims to meet regulatory compliance and approval of new drug molecules for commercial use.

• 8. Contribution to Healthcare System: Pharmaceutical chemistry contributes its share to provide safe and effective medications for various medical conditions. This contribution of Pharmaceutical chemistry to the well-being of patients.

Definition of Accuracy, precision, significant figures

• · Accuracy: Accuracy measures the closeness of a measurement to the true value or accepted value. It indicates the correctness and trueness of the measured value. It helps to assess the systemic errors in the measurement.

• Accuracy % = Measured value – True value/True value X 100

  • · Precision: Precision refers to the degree of repeatability and consistency in a series of measurements. It assesses random errors in the measurement. Precise measurement has low variability even if they are not accurate.

• Achieving both accuracy and precision is crucial to obtaining reliable and trustworthy data.

• Significant Figures: Significant figures are digits in a measured value. It helps to express the precision of a measurement. The following are the roles of determining significant figures

  • § All non-zero digits are significant figures. E.G. 234.29. It has five significant figures.

  • § Any zero digits between significant figures are also significant figures. e.g. 2006. It has four significant figures.

  • § Zero to the left of the first non-zero digit is not a significant figure. e.g. 0.009. It has one significant figure.

  • § Zero to the right of the last non-zero digit is not a significant figure unless there is a decimal point. The zero after the decimal point is considered a significant figure. e.g. 900 have one significant figure. 900.0 has four significant figures.

Alok Bains