General provisions

The course is part of the curriculum at the Master of Science Programme in Chemical Engineering, specialisation Pharmacy and in the Master Programme in Drug Discovery and Development.

Entry requirements

120 credits in biomedicine, pharmaceutical science, natural sciences and/or engineering. Prior studies must include 15 credits general and organic chemistry, 6 credits physiology and 7.5 credits pharmacology.

Learning outcomes

On completion of the course, the student should be able to:

• describe how basic pharmacokinetic processes, as absorption, distribution and elimination, are defined, expressed, calculated, affected, and how these processes in combination determine drug disposition in the organism over time
• explain how pharmacokinetics together with pharmacodynamics determines the effect intensity and effect duration of a drug
• establish dosing regimens for drugs based on their pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic characteristics, use given dosing regimens for calculation of concentrations, and describe how doses should be adjusted due to variability in pharmacokinetic parameters
• apply pharmacokinetic principles, including drug interactions to explain individual variation in drug disposition, and account for the consequences of this
• generate and evaluate pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic parameters in an individual PKPD assignment and use these for population-level predictions
• orally present a drug interaction, explain the mechanisms and evaluate the consequences of the interaction

Content

This is a basic course in pharmacokinetics, i.e. about the uptake and disposition of drugs in the body, and in pharmacodynamics, i.e. the description of drug effects with special focus on the time course of the effect(s).

The course deals with absorption, plasma protein binding, tissue distribution and elimination of drugs by liver and kidneys and how these processes determine the overall disposition of the drug in the organism. In addition, the relationships between dose - concentration - effect are described. The course also deals with calculation and evaluation of parameters that describe pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic processes, both regarding single dose and repeated dose administration. Finally, it describes the theoretical basis for clinical drug dosing, reasons for and rational handling of inter-individual variation in drug disposition as well as drug-drug interactions.

During the course, the student works with a drug interaction from an article. The interaction should be presented with regard to how the drugs involved affect e.g. pharmacokinetic parameters and what the consequences may be in different patient groups.

In a web-based, interactive, individual assignment, data is generated through a simulated clinical trial with the aim of training and understanding of pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic parameters. At a final workshop, these parameters are used to predict drug concentration and/or variability in patient populations.

Instruction

Teaching is carried out through lectures, seminars, workshops computer laboratory sessions.

Workshop PKPD and the seminar for interaction are compulsory.

The course is given in English.

Assessment

Written examination is arranged at the end of the course. In order to pass the course, the student must have completed all compulsory exercises (Workshop PKPD 2 credits and seminar for interactions 0,5 credits) as well as the written exam (5 credits).

If there are special reasons for doing so, an examiner may make an exception from the method of assessment indicated and allow a student to be assessed by another method. An example of special reasons might be a certificate regarding special pedagogical support from the disability coordinator of the university.

Other directives

Corresponds to and replaces 1TK055 or 3FF660. The course cannot be included in the degree together with the courses Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics (3FB606, 3FB104) or Pharmacokinetics (3FB605, 3FB215) or Pharmacokinetics and Statistics (3FB217, 3FB600, or 3FB054), as the content partially overlaps.