PHARMACEUTICS - 2027/8

Module Overview

This module covers how oral medicines are designed, manufactured, and how they behave in the body. It combines biopharmaceutics (focusing on drug absorption, bioavailability, and ADME processes) with pharmaceutical technology, which looks at formulation, excipients, and manufacturing. You will learn how drug and material properties, along with dosage form design, influence drug release, stability, and overall therapeutic performance from production through to absorption in the body.

Module provider

Chemistry and Chemical Engineering

Module Leader

ZARMPI Panagiota (Chst Chm Eng)

Number of Credits: 15

ECTS Credits: 7.5

Framework: FHEQ Level 5

Module cap (Maximum number of students): N/A

Module Availability

Semester 1

Prerequisites / Co-requisites

None

Module content

Indicative content includes:
Introduction to ADME processes: absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion and their role in drug bioavailability.
Preformulation: solubility, pKa, partition coefficient, crystallinity and polymorphism, drug-excipient compatibility, permeability and stability, methods to assess permeability, chemical and enzymatic stability in the GI tract.
Oral drug delivery: oral dosage forms, dissolution, dissolution profile analysis, disintegration, in vitro vs in vivo behaviour, fasted vs fed state.
BSC system: principles and categories (Class I¿IV), regulatory significance, examples of drugs in each class.
Powders and solid particulate systems: fundamental properties of pharmaceutical powders, (particle size and size distribution, methods for particle size analysis, powder flow and compressibility, blending of powders and granules, and size reduction of solid drug substances).
Drying processes in pharmaceutical manufacture: principles of drying, drying equipment used during the production of oral solid dosage forms, with emphasis on moisture control and product stability.
Excipients: common excipients used in pharmaceutical formulations, roles and types, functional excipients, API excipient interactions.
Solid and liquid dosage forms: definitions, types and manufacturing processes.
Strategies for poor solubility (oral drug delivery): solid dispersions, particle size reduction, salt formation and complexation, lipid-based formulations.
Strategies for poor permeability (oral drug delivery): permeation enhancers, prodrugs, carrier-mediated transports, use of biotechnology.

Assessment pattern

Alternative Assessment

For the laboratory exercises an alternative written assessment can be set. This is based on analysing or explaining experimental data, or detailing experimental techniques.

Assessment Strategy

The assessment strategy is designed to provide you with opportunities to demonstrate understanding of core principles while developing practical and analytical skills essential for a career in pharmaceutical sciences.
Thus, the summative assessment for this module consists of:

• Laboratory reports: addresses learning outcomes: 3, 4 and 6

• Examination: addresses learning outcomes: 1, 2, 3 and 5

Formative assessment is designed to support your learning and development by providing ongoing feedback and opportunities to consolidate knowledge, develop practical skills, and link theory to practice. It includes activities such as in-class quizzes, problem-solving exercises, workshops, and group discussions. In laboratory sessions, formative assessment is provided through guided worksheets, and informal feedback from instructors, enabling you to prepare for experiments, interpret results, and refine practical techniques before submitting summative lab reports. These activities are intended to help you identify areas for improvement, enhance critical thinking, and develop transferable skills such as teamwork, scientific communication, and data analysis, ensuring you are well-prepared for the summative assessments and for progression to more advanced pharmaceutics content in later years.

Feedback will be provided throughout the module during lectures, through interactions in laboratory and workshop sessions, and on individual laboratory reports. This will include general guidance to the whole group as well as specific feedback on work to support learning and development. In addition, one-to-one feedback can be requested by appointment with the module leader or relevant lecturer, providing opportunities for further discussion and clarification of concepts.

Module aims

• Provide a comprehensive understanding of the ADME processes and their impact on oral drug bioavailability.
• Introduce preformulation principles underpinning the design, formulation and manufacture of oral dosage forms.
• Introduce the principles of pharmaceutical technology that underpin the formulation and manufacture of oral dosage forms.
• Explore the Biopharmaceutics Classification System (BCS) and its practical significance, and strategies to address challenges associated with poor solubility and permeability.
• Understand how formulation and manufacturing decisions performance of pharmaceutical products.
• Develop practical laboratory skills and evidence-based problem-solving within a pharmaceutical sciences context.

Learning outcomes

Methods of Teaching / Learning

The learning and teaching strategy is designed to: provide you with a solid theoretical foundation in the subject matter while also developing practical, cognitive, and transferable skills essential for future careers.
The learning and teaching methods include:
Lectures: delivered primarily through PowerPoint and led by experienced members of academic staff with subject-specific expertise. The lectures will focus on introducing key concepts. Sessions will be interactive, with regular opportunities for students to ask questions, engage in guided problem-solving and reflective thinking, and receive timely feedback from staff and peers.
Laboratory sessions: delivered by experienced academic staff, supported by trained demonstrators who will be available throughout each session to provide guidance and assistance at every stage of the practical work. The laboratory activities are closely aligned with the lecture content and are designed to help students develop essential practical skills while reinforcing and conceptualising the fundamental principles introduced in lectures. Students will collect, process, and present experimental data for reporting purposes, thereby enhancing their analytical skills and developing their digital capabilities.
Workshops: delivered by experienced academic staff with subject-specific expertise and will adopt a problem-based learning approach centred on relevant, real-world scenarios. Students will be provided with structured exercises that encourage application of core concepts, critical thinking, and professional judgement. Dedicated time will be allocated for students to work through tasks individually and collaboratively, with ongoing opportunities to interact with the lecturer, ask questions, and engage in discussion. Each session will conclude with lecturer-led feedback, including worked solutions and guided reflection, to consolidate learning and support the development of transferable skills relevant to future academic study and professional practice.

Indicated Lecture Hours (which may also include seminars, tutorials, workshops and other contact time) are approximate and may include in-class tests where one or more of these are an assessment on the module. In-class tests are scheduled/organised separately to taught content and will be published on to student personal timetables, where they apply to taken modules, as soon as they are finalised by central administration. This will usually be after the initial publication of the teaching timetable for the relevant semester.

Reading list

https://readinglists.surrey.ac.uk
Upon accessing the reading list, please search for the module using the module code: CHE2045

Other information

The school of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering is committed to developing graduates with strengths in Employability, Digital Capabilities, Global and Cultural Capabilities, Sustainability, and Resourcefulness and Resilience.
This module will help you develop key skills that are highly valued in pharmaceutical science and industry. You will enhance your digital capabilities through the analysis of experimental data, preparation of graphs, and interpretation of results using online resources and software tools. Through laboratory sessions and workshops, you will build resourcefulness and resilience by learning to identify, troubleshoot, and solve problems commonly encountered in pharmaceutical formulation. These practical and analytical experiences, combined with your ability to apply knowledge and make informed formulation decisions, will also enhance your employability by equipping you with transferable skills and professional competence relevant to the pharmaceutical industry.

Programmes this module appears in

Please note that the information detailed within this record is accurate at the time of publishing and may be subject to change. This record contains information for the most up to date version of the programme / module for the 2027/8 academic year.