Pharmacy drug report

The Pharmacist on the Moon

Hi guys, I have been allocated a drug called imipramine as part of a drug report assignment that is worth 10 per cent of one of my modules for the year. I have a slight problem though in that when I searched for it in the British Pharmacopoeia, what came up was information about imipramine hydrochloride and I was just wondering whether I could use the info i.e the identification, tests, impurities and assay sections of the monograph in my report. Any help would be much appreciated as it is due in less than 3 weeks!

partyatmygaff

It's just the salt form of the drug. If it's the only monograph in the BP related to imipramine it means the drug is only ever used in its salt form.

All it does is increases the drug's solubility in water, may lower its rate of decomposition and IIRC hydrochloride salts may help the drug to cross the blood-brain barrier.

I think we covered this in the infamous "solubiliteeee" lectures of PH1002 last term if you want to double check.

REPSOC1916

partyatmygaff wrote: »

I think we covered this in the infamous "solubiliteeee" lectures of PH1002 last term if you want to double check.

Wait till second year. You're onto "lyophilic", "lyophobic" and "deespersion".

Word of advice for that drug report. You need to include all the possible reaction mechanisms for it's synthesis and not just the most commonly used one.

partyatmygaff

What if your drug has a very simple structure and a relatively straightforward synthesis mechanism? Another thing, if you don't mind me asking, what's the standard required and how hard is the marking?

REPSOC1916

partyatmygaff wrote: »

What if your drug has a very simple structure and a relatively straightforward synthesis mechanism? Another thing, if you don't mind me asking, what's the standard required and how hard is the marking?

I was told by Meegan when I was doing my project in 1st year to put down all the mechanisms including the currently used one(s) and any historical ones (ones used when it was first being synthesized for example). I had nine different mechanisms over all in the report.

You're grand if it's a simple molecule and mechanism (I had Naproxen which was ok). Tbh if it's a more complex one (such as one of the big bulky alkaloids) I'd just put down the main ones.

I'm not too sure about how Meegan marks the reports and what sections she tends to emphasize in terms of marking. I had around 4,500 words including the references but I wrote too much on the side effects and toxicology.
What drug did you get by the way?

partyatmygaff

It's even simpler than naproxen. A grand total of 11 atoms including hydrogens.

For anonymity... i've sent you the name of my drug in a PM.