FA513: Pharmaceutical preformulation

Study Board Pharmacy

Teaching language: Danish or English depending on the teacher, but English if international students are enrolled
EKA: N560037102
Assessment: Second examiner: None
Grading: Pass/Fail
Offered in: Odense
Offered in: Autumn
Level: Bachelor

STADS ID (UVA): N560037101
ECTS value: 5

Date of Approval: 29-04-2025


Duration: 1 semester

Version: Archive

Internal Course Code

FA513

Comment

Limitation of participants:
The course has limited seats and in case of too many applications, priority is given to the timely registration by date of registration. 

Entry requirements

none

Academic preconditions

The scientific fundament of the course is the skills that the students have acquired from their chemical or pharmaceutical education. The course builds on basic competencies in chemistry and physical chemistry as well as elements from drug formulation and manufacturing.

Basic chemical background equal to KE501: Basic chemistry (10 ECTS), KE538: Physical Chemistry for pharmacy (5 ECTS) and KE505: Organic chemistry (10 ECTS) or similar.

Participant limit

16

Course introduction

The overall purpose of the course is to give the students the necessary understanding of the preformulation activities that form the framework for the selection of new active pharmaceutical ingredients, the studies that supported the synthesis of the active substance and the formulation development. The course will specifically review the various activities from drug discovery to product within pharmaceutical physical chemistry as well as the associated biopharmaceutical activities.

In the course, emphasis will be on applying the chemical and pharmaceutical understanding into practice in the pharmaceutical industry, with focus on the preformulation activities. The course will thus provide the students with a chronological review of the preformulation studies from the start of a project to marketing authorization via a review of relevant regulatory guidelines, as well as key research articles, which will be discussed in the course.

Expected learning outcome

At the end of the course, the student will:

  • Understand the pharmaceutical implications for the solid stage selection for  the active substance
  • In depth understand the pharmaceutical chemical studies that can be considered to support rational drug formulation work
  • Understand and select the relevant pharmaceutical and physicochemical elements and considerations in the discovery phase, how this can be used to select the most suitable development candidate, as well as how to define a rational pharmaceutical formulation strategy
  • Have a deep theoretical and application-oriented understanding of the chemical reactivation and stability of pharmaceutical substances so that stable formulations can be selected more quickly based on a chemical mechanistic understanding
  • Have an insight into how the other topics discussed in the course should be viewed from a biopharmaceutical perspective and what this might mean for the definition of the pharmaceutical manufacturing process

Content

The course contains the following main areas;

    • Pharmaceutical developability activities
    • Determination of the solid phase including salts, cocrystals and polymers in a pharmaceutical context
    • Determining the pharmaceutical formulation strategy
    • Pharmaceutical compatibility studies
    • Solubility theory and the related chemical characterizations
    • Assessment of the chemical stability of active substance and drug formulation via chemical mechanistic understanding of the breakdown
    • Setting up relevant phase diagrams for amorphous solid solutions and lipid based formulations

    Literature

    See itslearning for syllabus lists and additional literature references.

    Examination regulations

    Exam element a)

    Timing

    Autumn and January

    Tests

    Portfolio

    EKA

    N560037102

    Assessment

    Second examiner: None

    Grading

    Pass/Fail

    Identification

    Full name and SDU username

    Language

    Normally, the same as teaching language

    Examination aids

    To be announced during the course

    ECTS value

    5

    Additional information

    Portfolio exam consists of:
    1. 80% participation in examiner hours
    2. Take-home assignment drawn up in groups of 2 people with a duration of 48 hours

    The re-examination consists of:
    1. A oral examination in the content of the examiner lessons
    2. Take-home assignment drawn up in groups of two people/individually with duration of 48 hours

    Indicative number of lessons

    32 hours per semester

    Teaching Method

    Planned lessons: 
    Total number of planned lessons: 32
    Hereof: 
    Common lessons in classroom/auditorium 32 

    The teaching consists of group lessons, where an introduction to the course's topics is given, an overview is created and perspective is given for both the individual opinion and the whole reviewed in the course. Dialogue is created using questions and built-in cases, but also by asking the students to hold parts of the introduction based on discussion of relevant primary literature.

    The teaching also consists of discussion of cases in groups as well as in plenary sessions immediately following the lectures. Involvement is essential to ensure positive learning, and the students are encouraged to participate actively in the teaching as much as possible, for example by solving tasks in groups or other work in groups or independent work.
     
    Other planned teaching activities: 

    • Reading the material
    • Work in study groups, including the use of cooperative learning
    • Preparation of exam assignment
     
    The aim is for the students to work with the material in a different way than usual teaching. The self-study may be used as preparation for the teaching lessons or there may be work from the self-study that is directly reported in the teaching hours. Cooperative learning is envisaged as part of the self-study.

    Teacher responsible

    Name E-mail Department
    René Holm reho@sdu.dk Institut for Fysik, Kemi og Farmaci

    Additional teachers

    Name E-mail Department City
    Judith Kuntsche kuntsche@sdu.dk Institut for Fysik, Kemi og Farmaci

    Timetable

    Administrative Unit

    Fysik, kemi og Farmaci

    Team at Registration

    NAT

    Offered in

    Odense

    Recommended course of study

    Profile Education Semester Offer period

    Transition rules

    Transitional arrangements describe how a course replaces another course when changes are made to the course of study. 
    If a transitional arrangement has been made for a course, it will be stated in the list. 
    See transitional arrangements for all courses at the Faculty of Science.