Aulton's Pharmaceutics

This is the fourth edition o Pharmaceutics: The Design and Manufacture of Medicines; the first edition was published in 1988, the second in 2002 and the third in 2007. The pedigree o the book is, however, actually much older. It was originally known as Tutorial Pharma cy and was initially edited by John Cooper and Colin Gunn, and later by Sidney Carter. For this edition, Professor Aulton has been joined by Professor Kevin Taylor o UCL School o Pharmacy, London. Professor Taylor has been instrumental in identifying new authors and contemporary subject matter or this new edition.

The philosophy o this fourth edition remains unchanged, i.e. it is intentionally designed and written or newcomers to the design o dosage forms. Other expert texts can take you into much greater detail or each o the subject areas considered here, once you have mastered these basics. The subject matter o the book remains, in essence, the same but the detail has changed significantly, because pharmaceutics itself has changed. Since the last edition there have been changes in the way that dosage forms are designed and drugs are delivered. These developments are reacted in this new edition.  

The involvement o a wide range o authors continues in this edition, each a recognized expert in the field on which they have written. Just as importantly, each author has experience o imparting that in formation to undergraduate pharmacy and pharmaceutical science students, and to practitioners in the pharmaceutical and associated industries and those working in technical services within hospital pharmacy who are new to the subject. Many authors rom the previous edition remain as they are still world leaders in their field. Others chapters have been written by a new generation o experts. The new authorship reacts modern knowledge and thinking in  pharmaceutics.

The structure and the content o this edition have been altered to react modern thinking and current university curricula worldwide. More importantly, every chapter has received detailed attention and has been revised and updated appropriately. Some fo the basic science remains virtually unchanged and will always do so but other areas, particularly biopharmaceutics and some areas o drug delivery, have changed enormously in recent years.

Several completely new chapters have been included in this edition to ensure the comprehensive nature and currency o this text. Part 5 o the book outlines the wide range o dosage forms available or administration by several routes. In previous editions, suspensions and emulsions as dosage forms were considered together, as disperse systems, in one chapter. In this edition, these are now considered in separate chapters, each written by a new author. This has allowed each system to be described more. The emulsions chapter now includes comprehensive consideration o the formulation, manufacture and properties o semisolid emulsions, namely creams. This Part is augmented by the inclusion o new chapters that describe the particular requirements or medicines administered parenterally, i.e. by injection, and or those administered to the eye.

When designing and manufacturing dosage forms, it is essential that formulation scientists consider the properties o the drug, the medicine and the needs of patients. Patients with specific pharmaceutical needs include the elderly and young children; both, in particular, have di faculties swallowing solid dosage forms. A chapter has been included outlining how medicines may be formulated specifically or these patient groups, and also how existing dosage forms can be modified to improve their properties, thus making them more suitable or the old and very young.

While most drugs comprise small synthetic molecules, there is resurgence o interest in, and tighter regulatory control o , medicines o plant origin. Also, biopharmaceutical products, including proteins, peptides, antibodies, vaccines and gene therapies are the subject o intensive research, and are becoming increasingly commercially available as medicines. Both these categories o therapeutic agent present particular formulation and drug delivery challenges. New chapters on plant medicines and biopharmaceuticals have thus been added. Nanotechnology is increasingly employed to improve drug solubility and dissolution rates and to enhance bioavailability, particularly o biopharmaceuticals and cytotoxic drugs, and this forms the subject of another new chapter. Additionally, the section on product stability and the stability testing of medicinal products has been completely rewritten to include current protocols