Pharmaceutical Chemistry

What is Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry?

Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry focuses on the design, creation, and evaluation of bio-active molecules that can become effective medicines.

This discipline involves:

  • Drug design — creating molecules with the desired biological effects
  • Chemical synthesis — producing these molecules in the lab
  • Biological evaluation — testing their effects on living systems
  • Pharmaceutical analysis — ensuring the quality and purity of drug compounds

The ultimate goal of pharmaceutical and medicinal chemistry is to discover safe and effective drugs by identifying molecules with the right pharmacological activity and chemical properties.

List of Pharmaceutical Chemistry modules & lecturers

 

Semester 1

Semester 2

Year 2

Pharmaceutical Biochemistry (FBCG 211 – Biochemistry relevant to pharmacy)

Prof Lissinda du Plessis (co-ordinator)

Pharmaceutical Chemistry IB (FCHG 222– Stereochemistry, natural products and fundamental inorganic chemistry relevant to pharmacy)

  • Dr Theunis Cloete (co-ordinator)

Year 3

Pharmaceutical Chemistry IA (FCHG 312 – Analytical chemistry and pharmacopoeias)

  • Dr Rigard Lemmer (co-ordinator)

Pharmaceutical Chemistry IB (FCHG 322 – Drug design, scaffolding and structure-activity relationship)

  • Prof Anél Petzer (co-ordinator)

Year 4

Pharmaceutical Chemistry IB (FCHG 413 – Medicinal chemistry underlying biological action and metabolism)

  • Prof Jacques Petzer (co-ordinator)