Pharmaceutical Analytical Chemistry: Open Access
Open Access

Bio-pharmaceutics

Drugs are substances intended for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease. Drugs are given in a variety of dosage forms or drug products such as solids (tablets, capsules), semisolids (ointments, creams), liquids, suspensions, emulsions, etc, for systemic or local therapeutic activity. Drug products can be considered to be drug delivery systems that release and deliver drug to the site of action such that they produce the desired therapeutic effect and are also designed specifically to meet the patient's needs including palatability, convenience, and safety.

Drug product performance is defined as the release of the drug substance from the drug product either for local drug action or for drug absorption into the plasma for systemic therapeutic activity. Advances in pharmaceutical technology and manufacturing have focused on developing quality drug products that are safer, more effective, and more convenient for the patient.

Biopharmaceutics examines the interrelationship of the physical/chemical properties of the drug, the dosage form (drug product) in which the drug is given, and the route of administration on the rate and extent of systemic drug absorption. The importance of the drug substance and the drug formulation on absorption, and in vivo distribution of the drug to the site of action, is described as a sequence of events that precede elicitation of a drug's therapeutic effect. A general scheme describing this dynamic relationship is illustrated