Pharmaceutics & Pharmaceutical analysis!

Thursday, 6/6

Our preceptor previously arranged a visit of the Chebrolu Hanumaiah Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (CHIPS), which is affiliated with the NRI Academy of Science General Hospital. He wanted us to appreciate the pharmacy curriculum offered in India. The CHIPS is located at 45 minutes drive from the hospital. Tom and I were excited to visit a pharmacy school in India.

 Our ride to the college left us somehow sick to the stomach. I felt like I was in a racing car game or roller coaster ride even though we were not going that fast. I had to brace myself for most part of the trip. In addition, one had to hear the honk almost continuously. The norm was to honk to warn other road users. One could read at the back of most trucks “ Horn, Please” or “ Blow Horn”. Moreover, there was a major highway in construction, which was adding more congestion to the regular traffic at some intersections.

The CHIPS was a prominent red/pink building in the area. At our arrival, we were introduced to the Principal of the institution. He was remarkably courteous. It was then decided that Tom and I would learn and make tablets after the tour of the school. The principal designated a staff for that purpose. Because students were either preparing or taking their exams, we could not spend time with them. We visited their pharmaceutical labs, instruments’ labs, museum, library, computer lab, classrooms, botanical garden and animals used for research. The facility had a significant number of laboratories, which was impressive. Students are required to attend classes in the morning (Monday-Saturday) for lectures and labs were mandatory in the afternoon for practice on subjects discussed in the morning. The emphasis of the pharmacy education was on chemistry and pharmaceuticals since the aim was mainly to prepare students for the industry, which was a prominent market for new graduates compared to community or hospital pharmacy.

Chebrolu Hanumaiah Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, view from the botanical garden 

CHIPS

Indian God of Medicine, in the middle of CHIPS museum 

Degrees offered by CHIPS included a Bachelor in Pharmacy (B. Pharm), a Master or post-graduate (PG) in Pharmaceutics or in Pharmaceutical Analysis, and recently a Pharm D. Since therapeutics were only offered to Pharm D students, the majority of pharmacists would lack associated skills. Hence, pharmacy was more about dispensing and inventorying and had less clinical emphasis. Another interesting fact: the Pharm D program was launched to fulfill the ambition of students that wanted to practice pharmacy outside of India, hence in developed countries! A pharmacy practice lab was under construction on the fourth floor, which is dedicated entirely to Pharm D program. The lab under construction depicted a typical retail pharmacy setting with a dispensing area, a counseling area and a seminar area.

 CHIPs is research oriented. An average of 152 research papers are published yearly. I included some numbers to give an idea on the cost of obtaining a degree in pharmacy at this institution. For example, the B Pharm degree would cost about 120,000 rupees (30,000 rupees / year *4 years). The master would require 100,000 rupees per year for two years, and the Pharm D would necessitate 95,000 rupees per year for six years (570,000 rupees total).  The staff mentioned that the cost of their institution was reasonably affordable. At the current currency exchange rates, it would cost about $10,000 to obtain a Pharm D at CHIPS!

We enjoyed our lunch in their guess room in company of three faculty members and our preceptor. Then, Tom and I received a brief, yet useful description of the methods and steps used for compounding tablets. Next, we put the information into practice to make parecetamol (acetaminophen) tablets in the lab.  We used the wet granulation method. I would be happy to provide the full description of the process we used if anyone is interested.

Weighting paracetamol

Group picture. Instructors: far right/left

Friday 6/7

We went back to CHIPS to test the tablets we made the previous day to check if they had the properties required by the Indian Pharmacopeia (IP). According to the IP, five tests were mandatory: weight variation, friability, disintegration, dissolution, and uniformity content. Added to these five evaluations, there was a non-required test to measure the hardness of the tablet, which was relatively associated with the friability of the product. We performed, under the staff supervision, the weight variation and friability tests for both tablets we made previously and tablets that were commercialized. Then, we conducted the disintegration test for the commercialized tablets, and saw the dissolution test process.

Tom, weight variation test

Tom, friability test

Performing hardness test on paracetamol tablet

After the dissolution test, we stepped into the instrumental analysis lab. This lab was well equipped and maintained just as previous lab we visited. The only difference was the running air conditioning, and the presence of reserve batteries to assure uninterrupted experiences in case of power failure (power goes off several times a day; so far, I cannot recall a day without power failure, yet it does not last long). There, the staff clarified the basics of pharmaceutical analysis. The instructor did a great job reviewing with us the qualitative and quantitative analysis. The instrumental analysis was greatly detailed. We also talked about spectroscopy, chromatography (especially high performance liquid chromatography- HPLC) and magnetic resonance

Then, it was time for practice.

First, we made each a pellet of a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug called numesulide (not approved in the US), and performed a FT IR (Fourier Transform InfraRed). This analysis can be used to determine the quality/ purity of a sample based on it absorption and transmission of an infrared radiation.

making of the pellet for the FTIR

Tom, applying pressure on the mixture of drug and KBr to form a pellet

My pellet! 

Tom, placing pellet into a holder for FTIR

Second, we started working on the HPLC, but we could not finish because it was time for us to leave. We will go back on Monday and maybe Tuesday to complete the HPLC and expand our knowledge in the pharmaceutical analysis.

Saturday 6/8

We spent our day in the main pharmacy. We worked with our second preceptor because the PIC was on leave of absence that day. We learned about their report system. He showed us where to find the report section on the main pharmacy interface. He demonstrated how to create, or retrieve indents, as well as how to run several reports. Meanwhile, we discussed about cash, corporate, and credit billings. We observed the routine transactions at the dispensing counters, and we tried to familiarize ourselves with drugs in their inventory.