Math in Pharmaceutical Industry

For this project, Grade 10 Math Project, we have to pick something from real life that I can explain how math affects it. I chose to do my project about the Pharmaceutical industry.

The pharmaceutical mathematics curriculum includes measurements and calculations required to prepare, prescribe and administer medication. Pharmaceutical math prepares students for performing mathematical calculations that are important to the distribution of medications. Pharmacy students must perform calculations that involve measurements, fractions, conversions, decimals and ratios. There is little room for error in this field. That means that pharmacists” calculations must be accurate and reliable. Pharmaceutical math combines math formulas with chemical equations to create content that is vital to a pharmacist’s role and job responsibilities. Certain courses are created for the level of expertise needed by the students in a specific field. Material covered can include algebraic equations, quantitative analysis and statistical analysis. Pharmacy students learn to correctly measure ingredient proportions so they can mix together rare medications, perhaps for a specialty compounding pharmacy. A pharmacist might need to convert metric measurements to household measurements. For an example, it takes 240 milliliters to fill an 8 ounce bottle of prescription cough syrup. This is because there are 30 milliliters in one ounce. 30 milliliters times 8 ounces equals the required 240 milliliters. Accurate calculations ensure the safety and wellbeing of patients.

For pharmacy programs, required courses for pre-pharmacy students generally satisfy any prerequisites for courses in the pharmacy program. Two semesters of calculus covering differential and integral calculus are usually required. But potential students are usually encouraged to take a wide range of math and science courses before applying to pharmacy schools. Pharmacy program courses in pharmaceutical math generally cover the material technicians study, but a much quicker pace. Graphing, functions, inverse functions, limits, derivatives, antiderivatives and other skills learned in calculus are covered as a statistics and graphing.

Pharmaceutical technicians are able to take courses that are offered at community colleges, they do not generally require prerequisites beyond a background in basic high school math. Technicians need to know basic addition, subtraction, multiplication and division of whole numbers and fractions. They will need specific focus on gaining ease with metric conversions and other forms of measurement. This includes a weight system called avoirdupois. This is a traditional weight system used by apothecaries called the apothecary system (The apothecaries” system or apothecaries” weights and measures is a historical system of mass and volume units that were used by physicians and apothecaries for medical recipes, and also sometimes by scientists. The apothecaries” system of measures is a similar system of volume units based on the fluid ounce) household weights and measurements. Technicians also are expected to know how to determine the correct prescription strength, as well as ways in which to dilute a medication to produce a lesser strength in the serum.