Läkemedelsutveckling

The course focuses of the development of new therapeutic drugs, from small molecules to cell delivery. All the main aspects of discovery and development of new drugs are reviewed. The course includes also the manufacturing and important aspects such as intellectual property, market and entrepreneurship, which are important for new drugs to become commercial products. The lectures are given by experts from industry and academia.

The topics to be covered are:

• Classification of active substances and their pharmaceutical properties: proteins including antibodies and derived products, polymer molecules, small molecules, peptides, viral vectors and cells.
• Basic pharmacology about administration, absorption, distribution and elimination, as well as pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics
• Methods for target identification and validation for drug development, including bioinformatics/genomics
• Methods for drug development such as screening, computer based calculations, in silico drug design and ADMET prediction
• Safety and efficacy requirements as well as the methods used in pre-clinical studies and clinical trialsof new pharmaceutical drugs
• Market landscape for the different types of drugs and their therapeutic areas
• Entrepreneurship and development of newly established research companies
• Intellectual property protection in the context of drug development and commercialisation
• Methods for commercial production of active substances
• Methods for pharmaceutical drug delivery including nano particles

The course includes as well a compulsory project, a literature assignment, in which two or three therapeutic drugs for a given therapeutic application are studied based on a questionnaire/project description. A main goal is to become more familiar with the concepts and material taught in the course by applying them in the project. Groups of about four students share the work. The students finally write individual reports. The projects are presented for all the students at the seminarium day (in two sessions, morning and afternoon, if the number of groups is larger than 10). The project includes as well peer-reviewing and opposition.

Information about the course is posted in CANVAS.