Pelletization process first came into existence way back during the 1950s, when the first product was introduced to the market. These pelletized dosage forms have gained popularity considerably from then because of their distinct advantages, such as ease of capsule filling because of better flow properties of the perfectly spherical pellets; enhancement of drug dissolution; ease of coating; sus...

In the past two decades, the potential association between the risk of suicidal ideation and behavior and the clinical use of pharmaceutical products has been debated among industry, regulators, and academia. A better understanding of the possible effects-favorable, unfavorable, or neutral-of pharmaceuticals on the risk of suicidal ideation and behavior may be required, especially for trials ty...

With this edition, Australia New Zealand Health Policy publishes four articles on the theme of Australian and international generic medicines market dynamics and policy dilemmas. Changes soon to be introduced to pricing arrangements under Australia's Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) make this focus particularly topical. Beecroft presents a community pharmacy perspective on these issues. Fau...

Pharmacists use various sources for obtaining the active pharmaceutical ingredient for compounding medications. In many cases, it is the pure drug (United States Pharmacopeia, National Formulary, or similar grade); in some cases, it can be a commercial dosage form; and, in some cases, it may be a dilution or concentrate. If the drug is not present at full strength, then adjustments may be neces...

We describe the 'Structure-Activity Relationship (SAR) Matrix' (SARM) methodology that is based upon a special two-step application of the matched molecular pair (MMP) formalism. The SARM method has originally been designed for the extraction, organization, and visualization of compound series and associated SAR information from compound data sets. It has been further developed and adapted for ...

This paper examines the idea that the USA has outshined Europe in the race for new medicines as a result of a flight of business R&D expenditure to the USA. It adopts a methodology that accounts for R&D price inflation, considers the role of both ‘performed’ R&D and ‘extra-mural’ R&D, and focuses on R&D productivity and patent quality as key indicators of innovation. The study provides three ne...

This paper has two objectives. First, it establishes a model for scoring the access to pharmaceutical services. Second, it develops a model for measuring socioeconomic indicators independent of the time and place of study. These two measures are used for measuring equity in access to pharmaceutical services using concentration curve. We prepared an open-ended questionnaire and distributed it to...

Simple, accurate and precise spectrophotometric methods have been developed for the determination of saxagliptin in bulk and dosage forms. The proposed methods are based on the charge transfer complexes of saxagliptin with 2,3-dichloro-5,6-dicyano-1,4-benzoquinone (DDQ) and 7,7,8,8-tetracyanoquinodimethane (TCNQ). All the variables were studied to optimize the reactions' conditions. Beer's law ...