Pharmaceutics

Pharmaceutics is the discipline of pharmacy that deals with all facets of the process of turning a new chemical entity (NCE) into a medication able to be safely and effectively used by patients in the community. Pharmaceutics is the science of dosage form design. There are many chemicals with known pharmacological properties but a raw chemical is of no use to a patient. Pharmaceutics deals with the formulation of a pure drug substance into a dosage form. Branches of pharmaceutics include:
Pharmacokinetics
Pharmacokinetics (in Greek: “pharmacon” meaning drug and “kinetikos” meaning putting in motion, the study of time dependency; sometimes abbreviated as “PK”) is a branch of pharmacology dedicated to the determination of the fate of substances administered externally to a living organism. In practice, this discipline is applied mainly to drug substances, though in principle it concerns itself with all manner of compounds ingested or otherwise delivered externally to an organism, such as nutrients, metabolites, hormones, toxins, etc.
Pharmacokinetics is often studied in conjunction with pharmacodynamics. Pharmacodynamics explores what a drug does to the body, whereas pharmacokinetics explores what the body does to the drug. Pharmacokinetics includes the study of the mechanisms of absorption and distribution of an administered drug, the rate at which a drug action begins and the duration of the effect, the chemical changes of the substance in the body (e.g. by enzymes) and the effects and routes of excretion of the metabolites of the drug
Pharmacodynamics
Pharmacodynamics is the study of the physiological effects of drugs on the body or on microorganisms or parasites within or on the body and the mechanisms of drug action and the relationship between drug concentration and effect.One dominant example is drug-receptor interactions as modeled by L=ligand (drug), R=receptor (attachment site), reaction dynamics that can be studied mathematically through tools such as free energy maps. Pharmacodynamics is often summarized as the study of what a drug does to the body, whereas pharmacokinetics is the study of what the body does to a drug. Pharmacodynamics is sometimes abbreviated as "PD", and when referred to in conjunction with pharmacokinetics can be referred to as "PKPD".
Pharmacogenomics
Pharmacogenomics is the branch of pharmacology which deals with the influence of genetic variation on drug response in patients by correlating gene expression or single-nucleotide polymorphisms with a drug's efficacy or toxicity. By doing so, pharmacogenomics aims to develop rational means to optimise drug therapy, with respect to the patients' genotype, to ensure maximum efficacy with minimal adverse effects. Such approaches promise the advent of "personalized medicine"; in which drugs and drug combinations are optimized for each individual's unique genetic makeup.Pharmacogenomics is the whole genome application of pharmacogenetics, which examines the single gene interactions with drugs.