Analytical Techniques in the Pharmaceutical Sciences 2023

Dear Colleagues,

The development of analytical techniques is extremely relevant to the pharmaceutical area, being required for a myriad of applications that comprise the identification and quantification of drug substances in pharmaceutical ingredients, pharmaceutical formulations, and biological matrices. During the process of drug development, the assessment of the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of each target drug is crucial to define optimum dose and administration schedules. Moreover, therapeutic drug monitoring involving the measurement of drug concentrations in plasma, serum, or blood is increasingly being applied to monitor patient treatment compliance. In recent years, the quantification of active compounds in drug delivery systems, in particular the determination of nanoparticles carrying drugs in biological samples, has emerged as a hot topic. Furthermore, the rising number of biopharmaceuticals and biosimilars demands the establishment of new methodologies for their characterization and quality control.

Many analytical methods have been developed over the years to detect and measure pharmaceutical compounds in different matrices and at different stages of the drug development process. Taking into account the complexity of real matrices and that target pharmaceutical compounds may be present at trace levels, the development of accurate and reliable techniques for their determination is still a challenge. Sample treatment procedures are generally necessary for analyte extraction, preconcentration, and clean-up, followed by instrumentally or biologically based techniques for analytical determination.

This Special Issue is dedicated to the most recent advances in the analytical determination of pharmaceutical compounds. We invite authors to submit review or original research articles on this topic, including the development of novel analytical and bioanalytical strategies based on state-of-the-art techniques, such as chromatography with mass spectrometry detection, and also innovative alternative methods toward a fast, simple, sustainable, and cost-efficient analysis of pharmaceuticals.

Dr. Luisa Barreiros
Prof. Dr. Marcela Segundo
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Pharmaceuticals is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.