The pharmaceutical biotechnology content of pharmacy programs within Europe: A survey

Authors

  • Gary Walsh Industrial Biochemistry program, CES Department, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland
  • Rainer Muller Pharmacy Department, Freie Universitat Berlin, Kelchstrabe 31, 12169, Berlin, Germany

Keywords:

Pharmaceutical biotechnology education, biopharmaceutical curriculum, fermentation technology, monoclonal antibody

Abstract

Genetic engineering and allied technologies have underpinned the development of a range of pharmaceutical products of modern biotechnology, collectively termed biopharmaceuticals. Twenty-five percent of all new drugs now approved are biopharmaceuticals and some 140 such products have gained marketing approval. Given the increasing prominence of this class of therapeutic product, it is of interest to survey the pharmaceutical biotechnology content of pharmacy curricula. Commissioned by the European association of pharm biotechnology (EAPB) this 13-question survey focused upon the lecture complement of biochemistry, microbiology and molecular biology, as well as the content of core pharmaceutical biotechnology taught within European undergraduate degree programs. Forty replies were obtained from different pharmacy departments across 15 European countries. The mean numbers of lecture hours delivered in biochemistry, microbiology and molecular biology were 61.8 ± 32.2, 52.4 ± 27.7 and 34 ± 16.4, respectively. For each subject, the number of lectures differed significantly between different institutions, reflected in the large standard deviation observed. Thirty-three of the 40 survey respondents (82.5%) include core or elective courses in pharmaceutical biotechnology. The mean number of lecture hours delivered was 29.9 ± 18.6 h and the courses are mainly taught in third or fourth year. Very significant variation in pharmaceutical biotechnology course content was also observed. Given the now central importance of biotechnology within the pharmaceutical sector, it is perhaps timely to consider these issues in greater detail.

 

References

Calis, S. (2001). Approaches to education of pharmaceutical biotechnology in faculties of pharmacy. Current Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, 2, 143–155.

Frokjaer, S. (2000). Pharmaceutical formulation development of peptides and proteins. Philadelphia, PA: Taylor and Francis.

Frokjaer, S., & Otzen, D. (2005). Protein drug stability: A formulation challenge. Nature reviews drug discovery, 4, 298–306. Glick, B. R., & McMahan, J. N. (2003). Molecular biotechnology. Washington, DC: ASM press.

Hudson, R. A., Lubawy, W. C., & Knapp, K. K. (1990). The new

biotechnology and biological science related instruction in colleges of pharmacy. American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, 54, 61–64.

Jackson, D. A., Berg, P., & Symons, R. H. (1972). Biochemical method for inserting new genetic information into DNA of simian virus 40: Circular SV 40 DNA molecules containing lambda phage genes and the galactose operon of Escherichia coli. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, 69, 2904 – 2909.

Kohler, G., & Milstein, C. (1975). Continuous culture of fused cells secreting antibody of pre-defined specificity. Nature, 256, 495 – 497.

Lobban, P. E., & Kaiser, A. D. (1973). Enzymatic end to end joining of DNA molecules. Journal of Molecular Biology, 78, 453–471.

Manning, M. C., & Mitchell, J. W. (1991). Protein chemistry, a graduate course in pharmaceutical biotechnology at the University of Kansas. American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, 55, 52–55.

McNally, E. (Ed.) (2000). Protein formulation and delivery. New York, NY: Marcel dekker.

Orive, G., Hernandez, RM, Gascon, AR, Dominquez-Gil, A, & Pedraz, JL (2003). Drug delivery in biotechnology: Present and future. Current Opinion in Biotechnology, 14(6), 659–664.

PhRMA. (2002). New biotechnology medicines in development. Washington, DC: Available at: www.phrma.org Pharmaceutical researchers and manufacturers of America annual survey.

Shepard, P. (2000). Monoclonal antibodies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Speedie, M. K. (1990). The impact of biotechnology upon pharmacy education. American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, 54, 55–61.

Walsh, G. (2003). Biopharmaceutical Benchmarks. Nature Biotech- nology, 21, 865–870.

Walsh, G. (2001). Core concepts suitable for education and training for the biopharmaceutical industry. Drug Information Journal, 35, 985 – 991.

Genetic engineering and allied technologies have underpinned the development of a range of pharmaceutical products of modern biotechnology, collectively termed biopharmaceuticals. Twenty-five percent of all new drugs now approved are biopharmaceuticals and some 140 such products have gained marketing approval. Given the increasing prominence of this class of therapeutic product, it is of interest to survey the pharmaceutical biotechnology content of pharmacy curricula. Commissioned by the European association of pharm biotechnology (EAPB) this 13-question survey focused upon the lecture complement of biochemistry, microbiology and molecular biology, as well as the content of core pharmaceutical biotechnology taught within European undergraduate degree programs. Forty replies were obtained from different pharmacy departments across 15 European countries. The mean numbers of lecture hours delivered in biochemistry, microbiology and molecular biology were 61.8 ± 32.2, 52.4 ± 27.7 and 34 ± 16.4, respectively. For each subject, the number of lectures differed significantly between different institutions, reflected in the large standard deviation observed. Thirty-three of the 40 survey respondents (82.5%) include core or elective courses in pharmaceutical biotechnology. The mean number of lecture hours delivered was 29.9 ± 18.6 h and the courses are mainly taught in third or fourth year. Very significant variation in pharmaceutical biotechnology course content was also observed. Given the now central importance of biotechnology within the pharmaceutical sector, it is perhaps timely to consider these issues in greater detail.

Downloads

How to Cite

Walsh, G., & Muller, R. (2018). The pharmaceutical biotechnology content of pharmacy programs within Europe: A survey. Pharmacy Education, 7(1). Retrieved from https://pharmacyeducation.fip.org/pharmacyeducation/article/view/242

Issue

Section

Research Article