Pharmaceutical preparations

Pharmaceutical preparations are medicinal products made by formulating active substances with other ingredients. Their forms and compositions enable use in preventing, diagnosing, or treating disease.

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Active pharmaceutical ingredient: The substance in a medicine responsible for its intended pharmacological effect. It supplies the therapeutic action around which each preparation is formulated.
Drug release: The process by which an active ingredient leaves its dosage form. A preparation must release its active substance at an appropriate rate and place.
Oral dosage form: A medicine intended to be swallowed or otherwise administered through the mouth. Oral preparations include familiar tablets, capsules, and liquids.
Biologic medical product: A medicinal product whose active substance is produced from or extracted from biological sources. Biologics pose distinct manufacturing and characterization challenges compared with many small-molecule preparations.
Good manufacturing practice: A system of requirements for consistently manufacturing and controlling medicinal products to quality standards. It governs how preparations are made to prevent contamination and variability.
Excipient: An ingredient in a medicine other than its active pharmaceutical ingredient. Excipients help give a preparation its form, stability, and usable properties.
Pharmacokinetics: The study of how a body absorbs, distributes, metabolizes, and excretes a drug. Preparation design influences the drug’s movement through the body.
Parenteral administration: Administration of a substance by a route other than the digestive tract, commonly injection or infusion. Injectable preparations serve situations requiring non-oral delivery.
Medical device: An instrument, apparatus, or other product intended for medical purposes, whose principal action is not pharmacological, immunological, or metabolic. Devices may treat or diagnose disease without acting as pharmaceutical preparations.
Pharmacopoeia: An official compendium of standards for medicines, ingredients, and pharmaceutical tests. Pharmacopoeial standards specify identity, strength, purity, and quality requirements.