Factors Affecting Pharmacy Students’ Decision to Study in Pharmacy Colleges in Saudi Arabia: A Cross-Sectional Questionnaire-Based Analysis

(1) Background: Many factors may play a role in deciding to opt for pharmacy as a major. However, no previous studies have been conducted in Saudi Arabia to explore these factors. This study aims to identify the potential factors that prompted students to join the pharmacy program. (2) Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire was distributed among undergraduate pharmacy students in Saudi Arabia, addressing areas such as reasons that encourage them to choose pharmacy as a major, and students’ socio-demographic characteristics. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the study variables, and a simple logistic regression analysis was performed to identify the potential factors. (3) Results: A total of 491 students completed the questionnaire. Around 40% of them had chosen to study pharmacy as their first choice. Only gender, current GPA, and reasons related to the pharmacy field were found to have a statistically significant association with students selecting pharmacy as their first choice. (4) Conclusions: This study shows that pharmacy students have a future-oriented outlook and selected pharmacy as their first choice because it will develop them professionally, financially, and intellectually. Educating high school students about the characteristic of pharmacy would help attract more talented students to the pharmacy carrier

Brain Targeting of Quetiapine Fumarate via Intranasal Delivery of Loaded Lipospheres: Fabrication, In-Vitro Evaluation, Optimization, and In-Vivo Assessment

A liposphere system for intranasal delivery of quetiapine fumarate (QTF) was created to assess the potential for enhanced drug delivery. We investigated the effects of particle size, entrapment effectiveness, poly dispersibility index, and pluronic incorporation percentage on these variables. The optimal formula was examined using a TEM, and investigations into DSC, XRD, and FTIR were made. Optimized liposphere formulation in vitro dissolution investigation with a mean diameter of 294.4 ± 18.2 nm revealed about 80% drug release in 6 h. The intranasal injection of QTF-loaded lipospheres showed a shorter Tmax compared to that of intranasal and oral suspension, per the findings of an in vivo tissue distribution investigation in Wistar mice. Lipospheres were able to achieve higher drug transport efficiency (DTE %) and direct nose-to-brain drug transfer (DTP %). A potentially effective method for delivering QTF to specific brain regions is the liposphere system