Artificial Neural Networks in Pharmaceutical Research, Drug Delivery and Pharmacy Curriculum

The purpose of this work was to review the applications of ANN, Artificial Neural Networks, in the pharmaceutical research, drug delivery systems, and pharmacy curriculum. With the advent of the computers and their applications in biosciences, significant changes are under way in the research processes and it is crucial for the research laboratories and pharmacy schools to be aware of the benefits of bioinformatics methods such as ANNs. Literature survey was conducted to assess the scope of applications of ANNs in the pharmaceutical research and the ability of ANNs to provide new areas of professional opportunities to the Pharmacy students. Our literature survey results indicated that ANNs can be very useful in many aspects of pharmaceutical research including pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics modeling, optimization of dosage and drug delivery systems. ANNs can be taught as a part of the PharmD (Doctor of Pharmacy) curriculum to equip the students for quick and effective formulation design and optimization of pharmaceutical doses. In this work, we have successfully summarized the applications of ANNs in pharmaceutical research and found that ANNs play an increasingly important role in pharmaceutical research and education.