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Drug pharmacokinetics

Published on June 30, 2026   7 min

A selection of talks on Biochemistry

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My name is Dr. Wayne Carter. Welcome to this lecture entitled Drug Pharmacokinetics.
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Pharmacokinetics. Drug pharmacokinetics (PK) relates to the kinetics, that is the movement of a drug into and out of the body. In other words, what the body does to the drug. Drug pharmacokinetics are often conveniently divided into four parts, abbreviated as ADME, which stands for absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion. Root of drug administration into the body and its takeup is the drug absorption. The passage of the drug through the body and its localization is the drug distribution. If and how the drug gets broken down and modified, that is biotransformed, is the drug metabolism. How and the route by which the body expels the drug and/or its metabolites is the excretion.
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Absorption. The pharmacokinetics and drug processing will be influenced by the route of exposure. The administration of a chemical entity (drug) is most commonly by an oral route, and this is for the majority of drugs. But also other alternative routes, such as skin (subcutaneous) or intravenous (IV) routes, are often undertaken. Oral routes will need to pass into the stomach and then normally pass into the intestines before absorption into the bloodstream. And they therefore may undergo metabolism typically in the liver. Whereas subcutaneous roots can be particularly useful for local, say skin topical application and like IV roots can often rapidly enter the bloodstream without further metabolism.

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