Book excerpt: Pharmaceutical analysis determines the purity, concentration, active compounds, shelf life, rate of absorption in the body, identity, stability, rate of release etc. of a drug. Testing a pharmaceutical product involves a variety of chemical, physical and microbiological analyses. It is reckoned that over £10 billion is spent annually in the UK alone on pharmaceutical analysis, and the analytical processes described in this book are used in industries as diverse as food, beverages, cosmetics, detergents, metals, paints, water, agrochemicals, biotechnological products and pharmaceuticals. This is the key textbook in pharmaceutical analysis, now revised and updated for its fourth edition. Worked calculation examples Self-assessment Additional problems (self tests) Practical boxes Key points boxes New chapter on electrochemical biosensors. New chapter on the quality control of biotechnologically produced drugs. Extended chapter on molecular emission spectroscopy. Now comes with an e-book on StudentConsult. Self-assessment is interactive in the accompanying online e-book. 65 online animations show concepts such as ionization partitioning of drug molecules etc. ~