UNIVERSITY PHARMACY

About the Institute

The University Pharmacy was established in 1907 as an institution of the Faculty of Medicine, but it was the first institution specifically for pharmacy purposes. Its purpose was to play an important role in the training of pharmacists, in addition to patient care, and to train trainees and pharmacy students in the methods of testing and preparing medicines and how to use them. Soon after the establishment of the Budapest Medical University in 1950, the University Pharmacy was reviewed and its functions were defined. Accordingly, its tasks were divided into three parts: pharmaceutical supply, education and scientific activities, which have been maintained to this day.

Thus, the Institute is currently the only unit of the Faculty of Pharmacy that carries out the triple activity of the University (education, research-innovation, patient care). Its mission is to provide pharmaceutical services to the clinics and to carry out teaching and research activities as an independent institute of the Faculty of Pharmacy.

Our undergraduate, postgraduate and foreign language teaching activities cover the fields of pharmacy history and pharmacy practice, mathematics and statistics, informatics, pharmaceutical management, pharmaceutical care and clinical pharmacy. In this way, we present a significant slice of the interdisciplinary fields of pharmacy with a practice-oriented focus. Our educational activities aim to respond to the new societal challenges of pharmacy. Pharmacist in the service of health education-preservation, evidence-based medicine. In our applied pharmacy education, we synthesise the knowledge needed for pharmacist care. We provide support to learn about health and pharmaceutical care systems, to acquire basic pharmacy management skills.

Educational activities

The Institute’s staff members provide theoretical and practical training to about 400 Hungarian and foreign students in several courses every year. The courses taught for the first, fourth and fifth year pharmacy students are Introduction to Pharmacy Studies, Mathematics for Pharmacists, History and Propedeutics of Pharmacy, Pharmacy administration, Pharmaceutical care, Clinical pharmacy, Basics of Pharmacy Management, and Pharmaceutical Advice for Travellers.

The Institute also has an important role to play in postgraduate training, including specialised training (public pharmacy, hospital-clinical pharmacy), continuing education and participation in PhD courses with accredited subjects.

Research activities

The focus of the Institute’s research is on the domestic development of social pharmacy research in the areas of drug utilisation, pharmacoeconomics, quality of life, patient therapeutic adherence  and health literacy. 

Pharmaceutical care, Clinical pharmacy

• Aspects of medication management of chronic patients, monitoring of drug therapy,
• Methods for the identification, prevention and resolution of medication problems,
• Measuring and improving patient’s therapeutic adherence,
• Public health aspects of evidence-based medicine and specific aspects of generic drug substitution,
• Analysis of the use of medicines according to WHO recommendations to improve patient safety, and
• Models for doctor-patient-pharmacist collaboration.

Clinical pharmaceutical technology

• Performing drug formulation activities to provide individualised clinical therapy,
• Develop patient-centred dosage forms,
• Investigating the stability of different drug formulations, with particular emphasis on optimising excipient selection.

Pharmacoeconomics

• Choosing the therapeutic modalities that will deliver the greatest health benefit using the available resources within the limited financial resources available,
• To promote more efficient drug management through cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analysis of different therapeutic protocols.

Development of innovative nanofiber-based drug delivery systems

• Formulation of polymer-based nanofibrous drug delivery systems using high-speed rotary spinning and electrospinning  (single needle/coaxial),
• Increasing the solubility and bioavailability of poorly water soluble active substances,
• Complex solid-phase characterisation of fibre systems to monitor the structure and function relationships relevant to formulation and stability changes,
• Exploring the functional properties of nanofibrous structure.

Supply of medicines

In the area of pharmaceutical care, the Institute is responsible for ensuring that the four requirements of safety, security of supply, quality of service and efficiency are met at all times. As the first element in the University’s pharmaceutical supply chain, we ensure the quality of the medicines coming into the University and those prepared in the University Pharmacy, and monitor the supply of medicines to the University by providing continuous information on drug safety.

We ensure the continuous and safe supply of medicines by using a well-developed and continuously updated formulary and by taking into account the provisions of the National Institute of Pharmacy and Nutrition and the professional recommendations of the Pharmaceutical and Therapeutic Committee (PTC).

We ensure the availability of certain shortage substitutes on a permanent basis or on request and according to individual formulations. This creates the opportunity for individualised drug therapy. Our active participation in the PTC helps to ensure that the pharmacist’s professional perspective is reflected in the University’s drug supply.

We carry out decision support analysis in the area of drug supply. We have a website with a drug information service for healthcare professionals. We organise regular training courses for those involved in the University’s drug supply, providing consultation on drug supply and therapeutic issues. We ensure the efficient and cost-effective supply of medicines to the University through continuous professional control of prescriptions and substitution.

• Thesis 2023/24