This is a forum where you can find information on a lot of different pharmacy related fields, from prescription medicine and over the counter remedies to the pharmacist profession and general health care.
Pharmacy is a health profession linking health sciences to chemical sciences. The word pharmacy is derived from the Greek pharmakon which means drug or medicine. Pharmacists are experts on drug therapy and modern pharmacists are not only skilled when it comes to compounding and dispensing medications but will carry out other related health care services as well. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that there are at least 2,6 million pharmacists and other pharmaceutical personnel worldwide.
The field of pharmacy is commonly divided into five main disciplines:
Medicinal chemistry and Pharmacognosy
- Pharmaceutics
- Pharmacology
- Pharmacoinformatics
- Pharmacy practice
The boundaries between these five disciplines are not clear-cut and there is a lot of overlapping. Also, they all have close connections to other fields, such as biochemistry. Today, it’s common for collaborative teams from several disciplines to work together.
Medicinal chemistry (also known as pharmaceutical chemistry) deals with design, chemical synthesis and development of pharmaceutical agents. Pharmacognosy is the study of pharmaceuticals derived from natural sources.
Pharmaceutics deals with all facets of turning a chemical entity into a medication and finding out how patients can use it in a safe and effective manner.
Pharmacology deals with how pharmaceuticals interact within biological systems to affect function. It is the study of the interactions that occur between a living organism and chemicals that affect normal or abnormal biochemical function.
Pharmacoinformatics is the implementation and use of information technologies to aid the systematic discovery and and development of pharmaceuticals. This field also has a strong focus on pharmacy education.
Pharmacy practice is focused on developing the professional roles of pharmacists.
Pharmaceutical drugs
Pharmaceutical drugs (also known as medicine) can be loosely defined as chemical substances intended for medical use. Pharmaceutical drugs are not only used to cure or treat disease, but also to diagnose and prevent various health problems.
In most jurisdictions, there is today a legal difference between over-the-counter drugs (OTC) and prescription only medicine (POM). Medicine classified as POM must be prescribed by a licensed medical practitioner, whereas medicine classified as OTC come with no such requirement. Sometimes the same medicine can be both OTC and POM, e.g. when a small quantity is available as OTC while a larger quantity requires a prescription.
In some jurisdictions, there is also a third legal category that medicines can fall into – behind the counter medicine (BTM). Behind the counter medicines does not require a prescription, but the pharmacy is not allowed to place them where they are visible to the public and the medicines can only be sold by a pharmacist or pharmacy technician.