Advanced Pharmaceutics

The course gives an overview on fundamental principles in advanced pharmaceutics. Advanced pharmaceutics topics, which will be addressed in the course, encompass (i) release mechanisms, (ii) pharmaceutical nanotechnology, (iii) biopharmacy, and (iv) manufacturing and quality control of advanced dosage forms. The first theme covers release mechanisms. This includes immediate release, controlled release, and targeted and triggered release of drugs. Pharmaceutical nanotechnology (theme ii) is addressing drug-polymer conjugates, delivery of biopharmaceuticals (peptides, proteins and nucleic acids), advanced drug delivery systems and delivery of vaccines. The third theme of the course (biopharmacy) will focus on evaluation of oral dosage forms, alternative administration routes for delivery of peptides and proteins, and aspects related to the drug development process in general (decision trees in drug development, PKPD modelling, regulatory requirements, the Biopharmaceutics Risk Assessment Road Map, personalized drug delivery, precision medicine and patient centric therapy). The course will also discuss manufacturing and quality control (theme iv). This includes manufacturing and analytical aspects of advanced dosage forms, continuous manufacturing, and quality control aspects of advanced dosage forms.

The overall aim of the course is to prepare the students to be able to select an advanced dosage form for a given drug, based on knowledge about the physicochemical properties of the drug, the advanced dosage form and the administration route. In addition, the student should be able to select methods for manufacturing, evaluation and quality control of advanced dosage forms.