Can a Pharmacy Student Be Expelled for Fabricating Dissolution Rate Test Profiles and Basket Stirrer Logs?

A university will summarily expel a pharmacy undergraduate (B.Pharm. or Pharm.D.), cancel all pharmaceutics and biopharmaceutics credits, and report the student to the Pharmacy Council of Nigeria (PCN) for permanent professional debarment for fabricating tablet dissolution rate test profiles, falsifying USP basket or paddle dissolution apparatus stirring logs, or forging spectrophotometric concentration curves without performing physical in vitro dissolution experiments. In accredited pharmacy curricula, biopharmaceutics and dosage form testing—including placing tablets in 900ml of dissolution media at 37 degrees Celsius, withdrawing serial aliquots at 5, 10, 15, 30, 45, and 60 minutes, and measuring drug concentrations spectrophotometrically—represent a statutory drug quality assurance competency; fabricating dissolution data compromises bioequivalence evaluations, conceals subpotent or defective drug release profiles, and violates professional pharmaceutical ethics.

Departmental pharmaceutics laboratory coordinators and quality control examiners enforce strict data verification procedures to detect fabricated dissolution testing submissions.

1. The biopharmaceutics course coordinator audits submitted dissolution portfolios and identifies mathematically idealized Weibull or Higuchi kinetic release curves with zero experimental variance.
2. The chief laboratory technologist checks the USP dissolution apparatus usage logbook and establishes that the student never signed out dissolution stations, temperature-controlled water baths, or spectrophotometer cuvettes.
3. The technologist checks the chemical dispensary ledger and confirms that no dissolution media buffers or reference paracetamol standards were requisitioned under the student’s assigned project codes.
4. The student is formally issued an academic query requiring them to perform a live dissolution test and demonstrate aliquot sampling and replacement calculations.
5. Inability to demonstrate analytical competence leads to a formal charge of scientific fabrication and pharmaceutical record forgery.
6. The Head of Department forwards an investigative dossier to the Faculty of Pharmacy Board and the University Student Disciplinary Committee (SDC).
7. The student appears before the disciplinary committee to defend their submissions under constitutional principles of fair hearing.
8. The University Senate ratifies the disciplinary committee’s findings, issuing an order of summary expulsion and notifying the PCN to bar professional registration.

Acquiring hands-on competency in pharmaceutical quality control is essential for graduates who will formulate life-saving medications, oversee pharmaceutical manufacturing, and inspect commercial drug products.

• Standardized pharmaceutics laboratory manual with approved tablet dissolution testing protocols.
• Raw bench workbook recording vessel temperatures, paddle rotational speeds (RPM), sampling timestamps, and absorbance values.
• Dissolution workstation sign-in register confirming equipment allocation and media preparation.
• Plotted percentage drug release versus time dissolution curves with kinetic model regression parameters.

Students must record actual experimental measurements honestly, noting any tablet capping, floatation, or filtration anomalies, rather than manufacturing idealized release profiles.

Under PCN professional regulations and university examination codes, fabricating pharmaceutical quality testing data is classified as severe academic fraud, carrying mandatory expulsion and total debarment from the pharmacy profession nationwide.

Maintaining rigorous laboratory ethics ensures that pharmacy graduates develop the analytical precision required to protect the public from substandard and falsified medical products.