Veganism: Are future pharmacists ready to provide advice?

Introduction: In addition to advising about diets, nutritional deficiencies, and supplements, pharmacists should be confident discussing medicine-related issues that may arise from people adopting veganism, including checking about animal-derived pharmaceutical product excipients, formulation processes, and determining whether vegan-friendly alternatives exist. Thus, this study aimed to investigate pharmacy students' knowledge and views about veganism.

Methods: Given veganism's increasing popularity and relevance to pharmacy practice, students enrolled in their last year of the undergraduate master of pharmacy degree program at Queen's University Belfast participated in this voluntary study.

The application of novel nano-thermal and imaging techniques for monitoring drug microstructure and distribution within PLGA microspheres.

Poly (d,l-lactic-co-glycolic) acid (PLGA) based microspheres have been extensively used as controlled drug release systems. However, the burst effect has been a persistent issue associated with such systems, especially for those prepared by the double emulsion technique. An effective approach to preventing the burst effect and achieving a more ideal drug release profile is to improve the drug distribution within the polymeric matrix.

STOPPFrail (Screening Tool of Older Persons Prescriptions in Frail adults with limited life expectancy): consensus validation.

Objective: to validate STOPPFrail, a list of explicit criteria for potentially inappropriate medication (PIM) use in frail older adults with limited life expectancy.

Design: a Delphi consensus survey of an expert panel comprising academic geriatricians, clinical pharmacologists, palliative care physicians, old age psychiatrists, general practitioners and clinical pharmacists.

Setting: Ireland.

Peptide Therapeutics and the Pharmaceutical Industry: Barriers Encountered Translating from the Laboratory to Patients.

Peptides are receiving increasing interest as clinical therapeutics. These highly tunable molecules can be tailored to achieve desirable biocompatibility and biodegradability with simultaneously selective and potent therapeutic effects. Despite challenges regarding up-scaling and licensing of peptide products, their vast clinical potential is reflected in the 60 plus peptide-based therapeutics already on the market, and the further 500 derivatives currently in developmental stages.

Developing Entrepreneurial Skills in Pharmacy Students.

Objective. To create, implement, and evaluate a workshop that teaches undergraduate pharmacy students about entrepreneurship. Design.