Necessity of med chem

[VCU2011]

---

Members do not see this ad.

alright I need everyone elses input on their medicinal chemistry course. I am now in my 3rd semester of med chem and starting to ponder the importance of this course. Looking back on my last two semesters (got B's in both- so its not like i slacked off)- I honestly dont remember a single thing from these classes. I remember taking the exams and memorizing the structures of thiazide diuretics in 2nd semester, but i coudln't tell you the first part of one of those structures now. We are currently doing chemotherapy and we have 17 antineoplastic structures to memorize (only one of which i'd ever even heard of) and I can guarentee that after i take the exam they will be out of my brain within the time it takes for me to get to the nearest bar.

That being the case, whats the point? I know that NAPLEX isn't going to ask me anything past having a picture of cholesterol and actually being able to identify it as cholesterol.

Any information on the matter would be greatly appreciated- especially responses pertaining to when med chem has actually helped you where pharmacology and therapy have fallen short. Thanks!

 

[WVUPharm2007]

Naturally, it's the only interesting course in all of pharmacy school, along with pharmacology. Sadly, both are useless in typical practice as typical practice is centered around the clinical use of drugs....which is boring....

 

[Requiem]

I'm partially siding with WVU, but only on the pharmacology side.

Pharmacology, to me, was an incredibly interesting and relevant science.

Medicinal Chemistry however was extremely poorly taught at my school (and I recognize this has a big influence), but I haven't once used any medicinal chemistry knowledge on rotations yet. There are 0 med chem questions on our licensing exams. I feel those interested in research should have it as an elective. It didn't add anything to my understanding, but again I had a very poor experience with it. I'm sure it could have been relevant given the appropriate circumstances.

 

[VCU2011]

Naturally, it's the only interesting course in all of pharmacy school, along with pharmacology. Sadly, both are useless in typical practice as typical practice is centered around the clinical use of drugs....which is boring....

At least pharmacology is a good way to introduce the topics and drugs used in therapy. Medchem on the other hand- nothin...

 

[Quiksilver]

yikes! How many more semesters of med chem do you have left? We had 1 semester of it, 1st semester in pharmacy school. It was barely considered a med chem class. There was no memorizing of structures, it was more of a pharmacology class then anything. I am glad my school loves kinetics instead of med chem, I would hate more then 1 semester of med chem. It is more pertinent to pharmaceutical research

 

[Aznfarmerboi]

Med Chem has some significance in industry and in a few clinical areas. It is more of a subject to help enhance your learning in pharmacology and therapeutics though. Why Vanco shouldnt be given PO unless you are treating the infection locally, allergy (PCN, Cephasporin side chains, etc), etc.

 

[iphetamine]

Ya, here I'm done with 3 semesters of med chem and going onto my 4th and final semester. I'm like come on, this is like what we studied in pharmacology but with a zillion structures to memorize along with analytical chem crap.

But to be honest, it's an interesting course, but too long and impractical.

 

[Old Timer]

Naturally, it's the only interesting course in all of pharmacy school, along with pharmacology. Sadly, both are useless in typical practice as typical practice is centered around the clinical use of drugs....which is boring....

I agree. It was great. If you don't understand SAR, it makes pharmacology harder for you because you have to memorize the whole course as opposed to building what you learned in med chem...

 

[iphetamine]

didn't want to start a new thread...

i have a med chem exam in 2 days and just been wondering, did you guys had to memorize approx. 100 structures????? Like what was your course like?

for example, if we were given a case study on an exam and asked to choose the best drug(s) for treatment, the structures would be laid out instead of the drug names.

 

[WVUPharm2007]

Only 100? Hell, our final had like 500 or so. Every structure during an entire year...painful...I got a 100% on it...lol...

 

[Farmercyst]

They roll medchem into our therapeutics modules. For me it seems like they were emphasizing changes in parent molecules to enhance activity. In this sense, I memorized the parent molecule and took note of the small changes for certain common drugs. It made it feel like the total number of structures to memorize was somewhat reduced. Somewhat like memorizing Cholesterol and then memorizing which changes made which steroids. Small changes are easier to memorize than an entirely new structure in my opinion. Though I agree I'm not entirely sure how useful it will be when I get out.

 

[iphetamine]

Only 100? Hell, our final had like 500 or so. Every structure during an entire year...painful...I got a 100% on it...lol...

that's awesome dude, hehe!! i don't know if they're 100 or not, lol, but this is my 4th semester of med chem and have had enough!!!!!!

They roll medchem into our therapeutics modules. For me it seems like they were emphasizing changes in parent molecules to enhance activity. In this sense, I memorized the parent molecule and took note of the small changes for certain common drugs. It made it feel like the total number of structures to memorize was somewhat reduced. Somewhat like memorizing Cholesterol and then memorizing which changes made which steroids. Small changes are easier to memorize than an entirely new structure in my opinion. Though I agree I'm not entirely sure how useful it will be when I get out.

true that..

 

[Quiksilver]

if i have had 4 or 5 questions on structures i would probably be exaggerating. I have had little of structural medicinal chemistry. Instead I have 2 years of kinetics.

 

[Sparda29]

Despite it being kinda hard, I love medicinal chemistry. Makes the whole subject easier to understand once you get the SAR.

It's too bad that our medicinal chemistry professor, who has a pretty good shot of winning professor of the year at Touro is gonna be heading back to Georgia. 🙁

 

[evilolive]

we have/had TWO years of medchem. It was kind of cool, but probably going to be useless.