The lectures will cover a broad range of aspects of drug development. It will give current examples from the pharmaceutical industry and will mainly be given by invited guest lecturers. Topics to be covered are:
- Classification of active substances and their pharmaceutical properties: proteins including antibodies and derived products, polymer molecules, small molecules, peptides, viral vectors and cells.
- Basic pharmacology about administration, absorption, distribution and elimination, as well as pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics
- Methods for target identification and validation for drug development, including bioinformatics/genomics
- Methods for drug development such as screening, computer based calculations, in silico drug design and ADMET prediction
- Safety and efficacy requirements as well as the methods used in pre-clinical studies and clinical trials of new pharmaceutical drugs
- Market landscape for the different types of drugs and their therapeutic areas
- Entrepreneurship and development of newly established research companies
- Intellectual property protection in the context of drug development and commercialisation
- Methods for commercial production of active substances
- Methods for pharmaceutical drug delivery including nano particles
The students will be required to perform a literature task covering many aspects of the course, present a report, perform peer reviewing, hold an oral presentation and perform opposition. (This is a group assignment with individual reports).