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General Pharmacology Course & Certification
Intermediate
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3 hours
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About
General Pharmacology training provides a comprehensive introduction to the principles of pharmacology and the scientific basis of drug action. It helps learners understand how medicines interact with the body, how drugs are absorbed and eliminated, how therapeutic effects are produced, and how pharmacological principles guide the safe and effective use of medicines.
This General Pharmacology Course & Certification provides essential knowledge of pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, drug-receptor interactions, dose-response relationships, routes of drug administration, drug metabolism and excretion, adverse drug reactions, drug interactions, drug safety, toxicity, and rational drug therapy. The course also introduces the factors that influence individual responses to medicines and the principles of selecting and using drugs appropriately in clinical practice. Upon successful completion, learners receive a certification demonstrating their understanding of the fundamental principles and applications of general pharmacology.
Who Should Enrol?
- Pharmacists and Pharmacy Professionals
- Doctors, Nurses, and Other Healthcare Professionals
- Clinical Research and Clinical Trial Professionals
- Medical Affairs and Drug Safety Professionals
- Pharmacovigilance and Medical Information Professionals
- Pharmacy, Medicine, Nursing, and Biomedical Science Students
- Life Sciences and Healthcare Graduates
- Anyone seeking foundational knowledge of pharmacology and the safe and effective use of medicines
What you will learn
Understand the fundamental principles of pharmacology, including drug classification, sources, dosage forms, routes of administration, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and the factors that influence drug action in the body.
Learn how drugs are absorbed, distributed, metabolized, and eliminated, along with mechanisms of drug action, receptor interactions, dose-response relationships, therapeutic effects, adverse drug reactions, and drug interactions.
Develop knowledge of the pharmacological treatment of common diseases and conditions, including the principles of rational drug selection, therapeutic use, dosage optimization, contraindications, precautions, and monitoring of drug therapy.
Gain an understanding of drug safety, toxicity, adverse effects, medication errors, special populations, individual variation in drug response, and the principles of safe and effective medication use in clinical practice.
Course Syllabus
- Pharmacokinetics = what the body does to the drug
- The four ADME steps — absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion
- Reading a concentration-time curve — Cmax, Tmax, half-life and AUC as things to interpret
- Steady state and why veltarib's ~12 h half-life supports once-daily dosing
- Small-molecule vs biologic ADME — novaxamab injected, not CYP-metabolised, very long half-life
- Worked example — reading a veltarib concentration-time curve
- Pharmacodynamics = what the drug does to the body
- Receptors as locks and drugs as keys; mechanism of action
- Agonists vs antagonists — full vs partial, competitive vs non-competitive
- Reading the dose–response curve
- Potency (EC50) vs efficacy (Emax) — the key distinction
- Selectivity, off-target effects and tolerance
- Worked example — comparing two drugs' potency and efficacy on a curve
- The therapeutic window — between too little (MEC) and too much (MTC)
- Reading the window on a concentration-time curve (veltarib 100–900 ng/mL)
- The therapeutic index TI = TD50/ED50, and ED50/TD50/LD50 conceptually
- Wide vs narrow therapeutic index (veltarib TI 50)
- Narrow-TI drugs — warfarin, digoxin, lithium, phenytoin — and therapeutic drug monitoring
- Why between-patient variability narrows the usable margin
- Worked example — reading a level against the therapeutic window
- What a drug interaction is
- Pharmacokinetic interactions — altered absorption, protein binding, metabolism and excretion
- CYP450 at a recognise-it level — inhibitors raise exposure, inducers lower it
- Pharmacodynamic interactions — additive, synergistic, antagonistic
- Food–drug interactions (grapefruit juice) and why polypharmacy raises risk
- Why biologics like novaxamab have low CYP-interaction potential
- Worked example — veltarib plus a CYP3A4 inhibitor or inducer
- The main routes — oral, IV, IM, SC, inhaled, topical/transdermal
- Bioavailability — IV is 100% by definition; oral is often lower
- First-pass metabolism and why it lowers oral bioavailability
- Immediate vs modified/extended release and the effect on the curve
- Small molecule vs biologic — oral tablet vs injectable, cold-chain biologic
- Worked example — how route changes the concentration-time curve
- Where pharmacology data appears — protocol, investigator's brochure, SmPC/label
- Reading SmPC section 5.2 (pharmacokinetics) and section 4.5 (interactions)
- Recognising Cmax, Tmax, half-life, AUC, bioavailability and 'CYP3A4 substrate' in prose
- What a PK/PD statement means for a CRA, QA, regulatory or medical-writing task
- Common misreadings to avoid (half-life is not duration of action)
- Worked example — reading a mock veltarib SmPC section 5.2 and 4.5
- Synthesis — PK and PD, and the two curves to remember
- Therapeutic window and index; PK vs PD interactions and CYP450
- Routes and formulation; reading pharmacology in protocols and labels
- A one-page pharmacology-literacy checklist
- How this foundational course underpins the rest of the Pharmaceutical Medicine curriculum
- Glossary and references pointer; boundary note
- 📘 Bonus: General Pharmacology eBook (Free with purchase)
Course Benefits
Free eBook
Get our exclusive eBook with every purchase - a complete companion guide to the course, yours to keep forever
CPD Points
Gain Continuing Professional Development points on completion of this course.
Certification
Receive a personal certificate to show your subject knowledge on course completion.
Affordable
You get excellent value through our cost-effective prices. We can also offer you group discounts on larger purchases.
Flexibility
The course saves you time through the convenience of online availability. This lets you complete the interactive course at your own comfort.
Keep Up to Date
You will stay up to date with any changes to ICH E9 (Statistical Principles for Clinical Trials), ICH E9(R1) (estimands and sensitivity analysis), ICH E3 (clinical study reports) and CONSORT 2010 reporting standards for time-to-event endpoints, as our training courses are constantly monitored, reviewed and updated.
Learn from Industry Experts
The course content has been developed by practitioners in oncology and clinical-trial biostatistics to ensure that learners can read a Kaplan-Meier curve and a forest plot, interpret a hazard ratio, and report a survival analysis that will withstand regulatory and peer review.
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