Pharmaceutical sciences

The pharmaceutical sciences are a group of interdisciplinary areas of study involved with the design, action, delivery, disposition, and use of drugs. This field draws on many areas of the basic and applied sciences, such as chemistry (organic, inorganic, physical, biochemistry and analytical), biology (anatomy and physiology, biochemistry, cell biology, and molecular biology), mathematics, physics, and chemical engineering, and applies their principles to the study of drugs.

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The pharmaceutical sciences are further subdivided into several specific specialties, with three main branches:

• Pharmacology: the study of the biochemical and physiological effects of drugs on organisms.
  • Pharmacodynamics: the study of the cellular and molecular interactions of drugs with their receptors.
  • Pharmacokinetics: the study of the factors that control the concentration of drug at various sites in the body.
  • Pharmaceutical toxicology: the study of the harmful or toxic effects of drugs.
  • Pharmacogenomics: the study of the inheritance of characteristic patterns of interaction between drugs and organisms.
• Medicinal chemistry: the study of drug design to optimize pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, and synthesis of new drug molecules.
• Pharmaceutics: the study and design of drug formulation for optimum delivery, stability, pharmacokinetics, and patient acceptance.

As new discoveries advance and extend the pharmaceutical sciences, subspecialties continue to be added to this list. Importantly, as knowledge advances, boundaries between these specialty areas of pharmaceutical sciences are beginning to blur. Many fundamental concepts are common to all pharmaceutical sciences. These shared fundamental concepts further the understanding of their applicability to all aspects of pharmaceutical research and drug therapy.

See also

• Medical sciences (or medicine)