General Pharmacology

Shree Sai Prakashan is writing a full set of B.Pharm titles to this new NEP 2020 syllabus. Get notified the moment the book for this subject is released, or pre-book sets for your college.

Unit 1 · Introduction to Pharmacology 8 hrs

Definition, historical perspective and the branches of pharmacology; the nature and sources of drugs; the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) and International Non-proprietary Names (INN); the concepts of generic medicines, essential drugs and rational drug use together with the Indian government's initiatives to promote them; and the routes of drug administration with their advantages and disadvantages.

Unit 2 · Pharmacokinetics 7 hrs

Drug absorption and its mechanisms, membrane transporters, bioavailability and bioequivalence and the factors affecting absorption; drug distribution, volume of distribution, storage sites and plasma-protein binding; biotransformation — microsomal and non-microsomal metabolism, the cytochrome P450 system, phase I and II reactions, first-pass metabolism, entero-hepatic cycling and prodrugs; and drug excretion and its kinetics.

Unit 3 · Pharmacodynamics 10 hrs

Types and mechanisms of drug action and the dose–response relationship; receptor theories, structure, classification and regulation of receptors, spare receptors, and the concepts of agonist, inverse agonist, partial agonist and antagonist; signal-transduction mechanisms; factors modifying drug action including tachyphylaxis, idiosyncrasy, tolerance, dependence and addiction, and combined effects (additive and synergistic); adverse drug reactions and their types; and drug–drug interactions, both pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic.

Unit 4 · Drug Discovery and Evaluation of New Drugs 12 hrs

Drug discovery and the preclinical evaluation of new drugs; human-relevant screening techniques including reconstructed human epidermis, organ-on-a-chip models, skin-irritancy testing by reconstructed corneal epithelium and skin-corrosivity testing by the Direct Peptide Reactivity Assay; and the advantages and disadvantages of in vitro and in silico pharmacological screening.

Unit 5 · Recent Trends in Pharmacology and Toxicology 8 hrs

Chronopharmacology — the biological clock, types of rhythms, and the hormones, diseases and drugs affected by circadian rhythm, with an introduction to chronokinetics and chronotherapeutics; the principles, applications and scope of pharmacogenomics, gene therapy, biosimilars and precision medicine; and toxicology — its branches, classification of poisons and antidotes, the general principles of treating acute and heavy-metal poisoning, preclinical toxicity testing (acute, sub-acute, chronic and carcinogenicity) per OECD norms, genotoxicity and teratogenicity, and safety pharmacology per ICH and OECD guidelines.