Drug delivery and pharmacokinetics

Choosing a suitable route of administration and dosage form for an active pharmaceutical ingredient is a critical step in drug development. It requires consideration of the physiological and physicochemical processes that govern the absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion of a drug, but other factors, such as patient compliance, also need to be taken into account.

This unit will equip you with the fundamental knowledge and tools to evaluate different routes of drug administration on the basis of the underlying physiological and physicochemical principles. In particular, this will entail:

• An introduction to the processes involved in drug absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion following oral, parenteral and other routes of administration.
• Mathematical approaches to describe and evaluate drug concentration time profiles and bioavailability (pharmacokinetics).
• Case studies in assessing the suitability of different drug formulation options.