(686h) Exposing Chemical Engineering Students to Pharmaceutical Concepts through Introductory-Level Experiments and Illustrative Exercises

Over the past several years we have explored ways to incorporate concepts of pharmaceutical engineering within the chemical engineering curriculum.  Our philosophy is to integrate these concepts in freshman and sophomore level courses and provide an experience that reinforces core educational objectives and increases student interest in the pharmaceutical field.  This paper is a continuation of our educational methods development, and will describe several pharmaceutical and consumer product experiments.  The pharmaceutical and consumer product concepts include: drug delivery, drug formulations, quality control, pharmacology, active ingredient function, and pharmaceutical processing.  These experimental methods and supporting exercises were created to be used in the lower level engineering curriculum and in outreach activities.  One of these experiments involves the manufacture and evaluation of drug delivery strip films, used in consumer products (breath fresheners and energy supplements) as well as analgesic drugs.  Their production and consumer use provide an opportunity to engage engineering students in learning the concepts of phase change, material balances, diffusional mass transfer, and statistical analysis.  In addition, methods used to measure strip film efficacy (dissolution and API delivered) and aesthetics (color and elasticity) are integrated.  A hypothetical exercise is provided to help students understand how manufacturing requirements translate to the amount of raw materials used.  An experiment in pharmacodynamics/pharmacokinetics with Alka-Seltzer^® helps students understand how to develop a RICE (Reagent, Initial concentration, Change in concentration, Equilibrium concentration) table to determine the equilibrium constant.  The stoichiometry of the “plop, plop fizz, fizz”^TM is also explored.  Crystallization experiments using dextromethorphan illustrate API solubility curves for different solvents.  This work is part of the educational outreach efforts of the NSF ERC for Structured Organic Particulate Systems.