PHARMACEUTICAL

CALCULATIONS
LABORATORY-FINALS
SELECTED CALCULATIONS IN
CONTEMPORARY COMPOUNDING
COMPOUNDING
 Traditional pharmaceutical compounding is the process by which pharmacists combine
therapeutically active ingredients with pharmaceutical materials in the preparation of
customized prescriptions and medication orders to meet the specific needs of individual
patients.
 This is in contrast to compounding, which occurs in outsourcing facilities in which large
volumes of product are compounded, without individual prescriptions or medication orders,
for distribution to inpatient and outpatient pharmacies.
 Differentiated further is pharmaceutical manufacturing, which is the large-scale production of
pharmaceutical products by the pharmaceutical research and manufacturing industry.
 Compounding is an activity for which pharmacists are uniquely qualified by virtue of their
education, training, and experience.
COMPOUNDED PRESCRIPTIONS AND MEDICATION ORDERS
MAY BE DESIRED OR A NUMBER O REASONS, INCLUDING:

 The need to adjust the strength or dose of a commercially available product to meet
the specific requirements of a patient
 The need to provide a product more organoleptically acceptable to a pediatric or
veterinary patient
 The need to prepare a different dosage form than the commercially available product
to meet the requirements o a patient unable to swallow the existing dosage form
 The need to prepare a dosage form free of an agent in the commercially available
product that cannot be tolerated by a patient
 The need to provide a patient with a specifically designed formulation of an approved
drug or drug combination, which is unavailable as a commercial product
CONSTITUTION OF DRY POWDERS FOR ORAL
SOLUTION OR SUSPENSION
 To enhance the shelf-life of these drugs, manufacturers provide products to the
pharmacy in dry powder form or constitution (or reconstitution) with purified water
or special diluent at the time a prescription or medication order is received.
 Dry powders or constitution are packaged in self-contained bottles of sufficient size
to accommodate the addition of the required volume of diluent.
 On receipt of a prescription order, the pharmacist follows the label instructions for
constitution, adding the proper amount of purified water or other diluent to prepare
the liquid form.
SAMPLE PROBLEM
CONSTITUTION OF DRY POWDERS FOR
PARENTERAL SOLUTION
 Some medications intended for injection are provided as dry powder in vials to be
constituted with sterile water for injection or other designated solvent or diluent
immediately before use.
 Generally, these medications are small-volume products intended for use by injection
or as additives to large-volume parenterals.
 In contrast to the dry powders intended for oral use after constitution, injectable
products may contain only limited amounts of specified added ingredients to increase
the stability and effectiveness of the drug.
SAMPLE PROBLEMS
CAPSULE FILLING
 The extemporaneous filling of capsules enables the
pharmacist to prepare patient-specific doses of
drugs in a conveniently administrated form. Empty
capsule shells, made of gelatin, are readily
available in a variety of sizes.
 Some pharmacists calculate for an extra capsule or
two so as not to run short of fill due to any powder
residue remaining in the mortar after the mixing
process; this may not be done or “accountable”
drugs, such as narcotics.
SUPPOSITORY MOLDING
 Pharmacists extemporaneously prepare
suppositories by using a mold. The drug(s)
prescribed and a suppository base are the
components of any suppository.
 Suppositories are solid dosage forms
intended or insertion into body orifices
where they soften, melt, or dissolve,
releasing their medications to the
surrounding tissues.
SELECTED CALCULATIONS
INVOLVING VETERINARY
PHARMACEUTICALS
VETERINARY PHARMACEUTICALS
 Veterinary medicine, like human medicine, uses pharmaceuticals of various dosage forms and
strengths in the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of disease and illness. Animals suffer
from many of the same medical conditions as humans, such as cardiovascular disease,
infectious disease, and cancer. Thus, many of the medications used in human medicine also
are used in veterinary medicine. In addition, however, there are diseases that are specific to
various animal species that require medications developed expressly or veterinary use.
 Veterinary drugs gain approval or specified uses in an animal species through the Center or
Veterinary Medicine (CVM) of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). It should be noted
that the label states “For Use in Animals Only.” Veterinarians are permitted to prescribe both
human- and animal-approved drugs or extralabel uses—that is, or uses not specified in the
approved labeling, so long as the drug is used within the context of a “veterinarian–client–
patient relationship.” This permits use of a wide range of approved drugs in animal care.
SELECTED CALCULATIONS INVOLVING
VETERINARY PHARMACEUTICALS
 The most obvious and striking difference between
veterinary medicine and human medicine is the
nature of the patient. Whereas humans do differ
rom one another in many respects, the differences
are relatively minor compared with the wide-
ranging differences among veterinary patients. The
various species of animals differ quite
dramatically in their size, physical appearance,
physiologic and biochemical makeup, intelligence,
temperament, and natural habitat. There are about
62,300 identified vertebrates, including 31,300
fish, 6,400 amphibians, 9,100 reptiles, 10,000
birds, and 5,500 mammals.
VETERINARY PHARMACY PRACTICE
 A number of pharmacists have established practice sites within veterinary clinics and
hospitals and thus routinely fill the prescription and medication orders of
veterinarians. Additionally, many community pharmacists have created a veterinary
component to their practices and dispense both prefabricated pharmaceuticals and
customized compounded preparations.
 Pharmacists who have an interest in the practice of veterinary pharmacy commonly
belong to organizations as the American College of Veterinary Pharmacists (ACVP)
and the Society of Veterinary Hospital Pharmacists (SVHP).
 Compounded prescriptions for veterinary use have the same benefits and restrictions
as do compounded prescriptions for human use. The primary benefit is the provision
of a customized preparation that meets the specific needs of an animal patient when a
counterpart commercial product is unavailable.
SELECTED CALCULATIONS
ASSOCIATED WITH PLANT
EXTRACTIVES
PLANT EXTRACTIVES
 The public has demonstrated an ever-expanding interest in the use of herbal remedies
and other dietary supplements as a part of alternative medicine or complementary
medicine therapies. Many of the herbal remedies used have their origins in traditional
or cultural medicine and have not been studied by rigorous scientific methods.
 The United States Pharmacopeia–National Formulary includes monographs, general
tests, assays, and standards or botanical drugs. Included among them are currently
popular herbals as echinacea, ginkgo, ginseng, Saint John’s wort, saw palmetto, and
valerian. The USP also publishes the Herbal Medicines Compendium and the Dietary
Supplements Compendium.
PLANT EXTRACTIVES
 Other products are prepared by extraction––that is, by the removal of desired constituents rom plant
materials through the use of select solvents. The plant materials, termed crude drugs, may be seeds,
leaves, bark, and/or other plant parts known to contain the desired active constituents.
 The process o extraction has two components, maceration and percolation. The term maceration comes
rom the Latin macerare, meaning “to soak.” By this process, ground crude drug is placed in a suitable
vessel and allowed to soak in a solvent or mixture o solvents, termed the menstruum, or a sufficient
period of time in order to so ten the botanic material and allow the extraction of the soluble
constituents.
 The menstruum is selected based on the solubility o the desired constituents. Hydroalcoholic mixtures
commonly are employed. The dissolved constituents are separated rom the exhausted crude drug by
straining or filtration.
 The term percolation is derived rom the Latin per, meaning “through,” and colare, meaning “to strain.”
By this process, ground crude drug is extracted of its soluble constituents by the slow passage of a
menstruum through a column of the botanic material.
PLANT EXTRACTIVES
 The crude drug is carefully packed in an extraction apparatus, termed a percolator,
and allowed to macerate for a prescribed period of time prior to percolation.
 Percolators are of various sizes and construction. Small glass percolators or
laboratory use are cone or cylindrical shaped, several inches in diameter, and about 12
inches in height. Percolators or industrial use are generally constructed of stainless
steel and measure about 8 feet in diameter and 12 to 18 feet in height. An orifice at
the bottom of a percolator permits the convenient removal of the extractive, termed
the percolate.
 The primary dosage forms of plant extractives are extracts, fluidextracts, and
tinctures.
PLANT EXTRACTIVES
 Extracts are concentrated preparations o vegetable (or animal) drugs. Most extracts are prepared by
percolation followed by the evaporation of all or nearly all the menstruum, yielding a powdered or
ointment-like product of extracted drug in concentrated form.
 Fluidextracts are liquid extractives of plant materials adjusted or drug content so that each milliliter of
fluidextract is equivalent in constituents to 1 g of the crude drug from which it is derived.
 Botanic tinctures are alcoholic or hydroalcoholic solutions o plant extractives, and although there is no
set strength or tinctures, the following quantities o crude drug have traditionally been used in the
preparation o each 100 mL of tincture:
SELECTED BIOAVAILABILITY AND
PHARMACOKINETIC CALCULATIONS
BIOAVAILABILITY AND PHARMACOKINETIC
 The availability to the biologic system of a drug substance formulated into a pharmaceutical
product is integral to the goals of dosage form design and paramount to the effectiveness of
the medication.
 Before a drug substance can be absorbed by the biologic system, it must be released from its
dosage form or drug delivery system and dissolved in the physiologic fluids. Several factors
play a role in a drug’s biologic availability, including the physical and chemical
characteristics of the drug itself, such as its particle size and solubility, and the features of the
dosage form or delivery system, such as the nature of the formulative ingredients and the
method of manufacture. T he area of study that deals with the properties of drug substances
and dosage forms that influence the release of the drug for biologic activity is termed
biopharmaceutics.
 The term bioavailability is defined as “the rate and extent to which the active ingredient or
active moiety is absorbed from a drug product and becomes available at the site of action.”
BIOAVAILABILITY AND PHARMACOKINETIC
 Pharmacokinetics is the study and characterization of the time course of the absorption, distribution,
metabolism, and excretion (ADME) of drugs.
 The relationship among the processes of ADME influences the therapeutic and toxicologic effects of
drugs. The application of pharmacokinetic principles in the treatment of individual patients in
optimizing drug therapy is referred to as clinical pharmacokinetics.
 The availability of a drug from a dosage form or delivery system is determined by measuring its
dissolution characteristics in vitro and/or its absorption patterns in vivo.
 The apparent volume of distribution or a drug is not a “real” volume but rather a hypothetical volume
of body fluid that would be required to dissolve the total amount of drug at the same concentration as
that found in the blood. The volume of distribution is an indicator of the extent of a drug’s distribution
throughout the body fluids and tissues. The information is useful in understanding how the body
processes and distributes a given drug substance.
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