Under the supervision of the Dean of the College of Pharmacy, Professor Dr. Sarmed H. Kathem Alkhateeb, the Continuing Education Unit at the University of Baghdad/College of Pharmacy held an in-person workshop entitled “The Application of Pharmacokinetic Properties of Drugs to Improve Therapeutic Effect”, delivered by the Lecturer Dr. Firas Falih Al-Zubaydi, a faculty member at the Pharmaceutics Department.

The workshop aimed to explore the application of pharmacokinetic properties of drugs to improve the therapeutic effect with an FDA-approved drug dosage form.

The workshop included several topics, including an elucidation of linear and nonlinear pharmacokinetic concepts, in which linear means that a 2-fold increase in dose would result in a 2-fold increase in drug exposure, while nonlinear means that an increase in drug exposure is not linearly related to the increase in administered doses. Moreover, it was demonstrated that the optimal antimicrobial activity for concentration-dependent antibiotics, such as Azithromycin, is best achieved when high levels of the drug exit at the site of infection, and that the administration of a single high dose of Azithromycin, such as a 2g dose, does not saturate the distribution to the sinus tissue due to the nonlinear pharmacokinetics of the drug. Also, the lecturer mentioned that pre-clinical animal infection models showed enhanced antibacterial efficacy of Azithromycin when the total dose was given as a single oral dose rather than split dosing over 2 or 3 days.

The workshop concluded that the pharmacokinetic properties of drugs can be applied to improve the therapeutic effect by formulation of a specific dosage form to deliver the drug with a higher concentration at the site of action.

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