Medicinal Chemistry

[PharmRose17]

Hello fellow Pharm students,

This Thread is for individuals that can share some knowledge regarding med chem and what it takes to do good in this course?

If someone has a weak foundation of regular chem or organic chem are they at a disadvantage??

Thank you all in advance for taking your time out to share

 

[Grizaholic17]

The entire first exam that the p2's took this year was an ochem review. I don't have med chem until fall 2011 (i'm a p1)...but i've heard that it is very important to remain solid in ochem.

I know others will have more insight 🙂

 

[Keyoda]

Not to scare you but yeah, if you had trouble with org chem you are at a serious disadvantage in med chem.

You to need review nomenclature (ie know the difference between benzyl and benzene, amide amine amidene etc etc)

Make flash cards with the drug's structure on one side and the important facts you need to memorize on the other other side.

I know people who worked as chemists b4 entering pharmacy school and even they had trouble with this class b/c once you get the foundation you need A TON of memorization.


G'luck

 

[mustang sally]

I did horrible at organic chem (and wasn't really all that great at regular chemistry sometimes either), and I did fine in med chem. The professors didn't test us over anything that wasn't reviewed in the class. However, it was a lot of work for me to get As in those classes-lots of studying and flash cards. Most of it is memorization, which anyone can do.

 

[Karmapharmer]

Thank you for that reassurance. I was reasonably ok at OChem but it took some work. I'll just be prepared to jump in immediately come Aug.

 

[edenstarlite]

Is Med. Chem more so Ochem nonmenclature and structures? Are there many reactions like those of Ochem? Any insight is greatly appreciated.

 

[dgroulx]

Is Med. Chem more so Ochem nonmenclature and structures? Are there many reactions like those of Ochem? Any insight is greatly appreciated.

We had to draw structures, show rearrangement of molecules, but nothing with using reagents to get to that structure. More like when a drug enters your body, based on physiological PH, what happens to that structure with electron movement, etc.

 

[MatCauthon]

I found that med chem wasn't too terrible. Organic chemistry was more difficult than med chem in terms of thought application. Med chem was mainly a pure memorization class at our school. Med chem involved more memorization and organic chemistry, to me, involved a lot more thought and application. Of course, when we had organic chemistry we had a standard textbook with tons of practice problems to work thought. We didn't have any practice problems to work through in med chem-- I'm pretty sure the old exams saved me.

Med. chem involved lots of structure activity relationship stuff. Always know the SAR stuff backwards and forwards. If you can circle the active part of each molecule then you should be able golden. I recall seeing a hell of a lot of tertiary and quarternary amines in med chem. Also, if they show any mechanism of activation or toxic metabolite pathways those are almost guaranteed to be on the test.

In terms of practical stuff to know, definitely spend times on learning the method of metabolism. Professors love to ask questions about what CYP pathway a drug is metabolized by, and potential drug interactions. If a drug is a pro-drug, then it is guaranteed to be on the test. The professors also love to ask questions about stereo-chemistry. So if the drug has multiple stereo-isomers (eg warfarin and albuterol) which one is more potent.

I found med chem to be a pretty fun class. It is definitely an overload of information, but if you have a good memory it shouldn't be too difficult. Unlike therapeutics, I found that med. chem was rather simple in terms of critical thinking.