pharmaceutiques

Pharmaceutiques is the French term commonly used to refer to pharmaceuticals: medicines, their active substances, and the scientific and industrial activities involved in their discovery, development, production, and distribution. In English, the related term pharmaceutics denotes both a branch of pharmaceutical science and the practical aspects of drug formulation and delivery. The field encompasses a wide range of products and processes, from chemical drugs to biologics, vaccines, and consumer health items.

The scope includes prescription medicines, over-the-counter drugs, generics and biosimilars, biologics, sterile preparations, and various dosage forms such as tablets, capsules, injectables, creams, aerosols, and inhalants. It also covers regulatory science, quality assurance, packaging, and pharmacoeconomics. Environmental and supply-chain considerations are increasingly integrated into practice, alongside safety and efficacy standards.

Drug development follows a lifecycle beginning with discovery, preclinical testing, and clinical trials, then regulatory review and market authorization by authorities such as the FDA or EMA. Manufacturing and distribution must comply with good manufacturing practices (GMP) and safety monitoring through pharmacovigilance and post-marketing surveillance. Intellectual property, pricing, and access considerations frequently influence the availability of medicines.

Pharmaceutiques as a field sits at the intersection of science, industry, and public health. It emphasizes quality, safety, efficacy, and access, while addressing regulatory compliance, ethical considerations, and global disparities in medicine availability.