Pharmacy Subjects for Higher Studies

I have completed Bachelor of Pharmaceutical Sciences Degree Course B. Pharma which Pharmacy Subjects for Higher Studies I should take for Master in Pharmacy Courses (M. Pharma)

After completion of B. Pharma Course many students ask which pharmacy subjects for higher studies to choose this is a typical question to industry professionals about making their career in pharma industry, in order to get proper placement in the pharmaceutical industry they tend to choose a particular subject in which they like to pursue their Masters in Pharmacy Education.

Following are Pharmacy Subjects for Higher Studies which one can considered, every field is of importance in the pharmaceutical sciences master course.

1) Pharmaceutics:

This is a subject which teaches in depth formulation of all dosage forms, tablets, capsule liquid oral, injectable, transdermal patches, depot injections, and advanced drug delivery systems like liposomal drug delivery, artificial pancreas, and vector aided gen delivery systems.

The subject studies physicochemical properties of excipients and the formulations. It is a very important field in pharmacy as after a new drug is identified it has to be studied in a formulation and clinically investigated in order to make it commercially available for use in patients.

2) Biopharmaceutics:

This field is related to synthesis and formulation of biological drug products, like vaccines, sera, and antibiotics, the formulating vaccine and sera in a stable form for use in patients is very critical and this field deals with these aspects of pharmacy.

3) Pharmacology:

This field in pharmacy deals with study of safety and effect of drug on various systems of human body, which includes circulatory system, blood formation, hormonal system, pituitary gland, Brain, and skeletal muscles, smooth muscles, cardiovascular system, sensory organs, Gastrointestinal track and so on many systems in the human body are studied for the effect of a particular drug, on short term as well as long term use, the effects may be side effects of drug or desired effect of the drug. Here first the animal model is chosen to find out the effect of drugs on various tissues, which are similar in humans.

4) Bioavailability and Bioequivalence, pharmacokinetics: 

This field of pharmacy deals with drug absorption and distribution of the drug and comparison of the drug with already available drugs in the market. This study is important for presenting data of a new drug developed which is a generic version of an approved drug.

In pharmacokinetics, the absorption and elimination of drug is studied, half-life of drug is identified s as to fix the dosage regimen of the drug in patients. Pharmacokinetics studies rate at which drug is absorbed in body and rate at which it is eliminated.

5) Clinical Pharmacy:

Deals with study of drug in a clinical trial, clinical trials are of various phases, in phase 1 trial safety of the drug is established in animal model, in phase 2 trial the safety and efficacy is studied in small group of human volunteers, In Phase 3 trial the number of human volutes is greater, it can be multicenter spread across the country or various nations. Outcome of the drugs clinical evaluation is gathered for granting approval to the drug to be marketed for use in patients.

6) Biotechnology:

Biotechnology deals with synthesis of drugs like antibiotics, and biological amines, and hormones from genetic engineering. Hybridoma Technology, making and purification of monoclonal antibodies. This field has vast scope and its future of medicine one must study biotechnology if they get a chance. Drug synthesis from genetic engineering for example synthesis and purification of human insulin is done with biotechnology.

7) Pharmaceutical Chemistry:

Is a field that deals with drug molecule synthesis and relating a drug molecule’s effect to its functional group and biochemicals found in the human body. Drug molecule development, synthesis, analysis of drug as an API as well as in the formulation form. Drug molecule special orientation and chiral chemistry.

Analytical method developments and drug analysis by using various instrumentations like HPLC, GC, IR.

Pharmaceutical chemistry is a very important field in pharmacy.

8) Pharmacognosy:

This branch of pharmacy deals with drugs from herbal, plant origin and natural origin, its identification, standardization, and formulation. This field too is of great importance since many drugs still are available only from herbal and natural origin. For example, digitalis. It is an important drug used to treat congestive cardiac failure, it is a lifesaving drug and it is available from herbal origin from plant digitalis lanata.

9) Quality assurance:

A Master in Pharmacy with quality assurance as a subject gives an additional qualification for a person to start his career in the pharma industry in the regulatory affairs and quality assurance department.

This field teaches all the aspects of pharmaceutical quality assurance quality management systems and documentation.

10) Regulatory affairs:

Regulatory affairs deal with the drug regulations, drug approvals, presentation of ANDA, INDA, drug master files to regulatory agencies, as per the regulations in the particular country. This field too is of importance in the pharma industry as many companies are spreading and expanding their business to many countries for which they require a person with knowledge of regulatory affairs.

These are few highlights of Pharmacy Subjects for Higher Studies one can choose for their higher study like M. Pharma, PhD.

Pharmacovigilance: 

It is a branch of Pharmacy which deals with pre and post market reporting and dealing with adverse drug effects, adverse drug reactions. Every pharmaceutical manufacturing company today has this department. It is a mandatory activity made my regulatory agencies like US FDA.