Impact of medicinal chemistry integration in Pharm.D. programmes on first-time NAPLEX pass rates

Abstract

Objectives: To address the impact of instructing medicinal chemistry in an integrated versus stand-alone fashion on three-year average of first-time NAPLEX (North American Pharmacist Licensure Examination) pass rates of all United States of America Pharmacy programmes. Methods: A review of each programme’s publicly available curriculum on their official webpage revealed medicinal chemistry as integrated (horizontal or vertical), or standalone course forms. Fisher’s exact and the ANOVA tests were performed to assess the primary outcome and covariates. Results: Out of a total of 136 eligible programmes, 80 programmes (61.5%) stated that medicinal chemistry content was integrated with other foundational sciences content (‘horizontal integration’), while 38 (29.2%) stated that medicinal chemistry was a standalone course. Medicinal chemistry is integrated with pharmacotherapy courses ('vertically integrated’) in remaining 12 programmes (9.2%).   Conclusion: A conclusion could not be made regarding the impact of medicinal chemistry instruction on NAPLEX outcome due to other underlying factors; however, this study provided a framework for future research.