drug development

• antibiotics kill bacteria NOT viruses

  • difficult to make them target specific bacteria and not damage cells and good bacteria
  • whole courses must be taken to kill bacteria or more resistant bacteria will survive and multiply
• drugs used to be dervived from nature

  • aspirin(painkiller)came from trees
  • penicillin (1st anti biotic)came from mould
• synthetic drugs

  • cost a lot to make
  • put through trials to test efficacy
  • tested on cell tissue-->animals-->humans
  • blind trail:test group are given drug
  • control group are given the placebo effect without being made aware