Drug Degradation - SHC4041

Assessment 1: Written practice exercise

Tutorial assignments will be preceded by problem solving exercises which will be used to provide formative assessment towards the coursework assignment.

Written practice exercise

Assessment 1: Written Assignment

Written Assignment

Assessment 3: Written Assignment

Assessment 2: Written Assignment

<p>This distance learning module will discuss the common (non-metabolic) degradation courses of biologically active pharmaceutical molecules.  These processes are degradation by hydrolysis, oxidation and photolysis.  Solid state degradations of formulated medicines will also be considered.</p>

School of Applied Sciences

Chemical Sciences

SHC4041 - Drug Degradation

Drug Degradation

appreciate organic functional groups in terms of their     inherent reactivity towards water, oxygen and light.

know in-depth the major courses by which drug substances undergo reaction with water and be able to relate these to structure and mechanism.

understand fully the importance of drug degradation studies to the pharmaceutical sector.

predict the degradation courses of actual drugs and drug candidates and suggest mechanistic courses for identified degradation products.


apply the theory of drug degradation to an unseen molecule with an unknown route of degradation and predict the major products.


know the structure of oxygen and understand its reactions in the ground state triplet state and the excited singlet state and their consequences.

be aware of non-oxygen based oxidative degradation and also the influence of pharmaceutical form on degradation.

solve complex problems related to the synthesis of stable pharmaceutical drug substances.


know that exposure to electromagnetic radiation can cause degradation by primary and secondary courses via isomerism and rearrangement and lysis and know the major fates of free radical degradation products.