Developing New Drugs

• The constant demand to produce new drugs

  • New painkillers are developed to treat the symptoms of disease but they do not kill the pathogens 
  • Antiviral drugs are needed that will kill viruses without also damaging the body’s tissues 
  • New antibiotics are needed as resistant strain of bacteria develop
• Where drugs are extracted fromtraditionally

  • Traditionally drugs were extracted from plants and microorganisms 
  • Digitalis is a heart drug that originates from foxgloves 
  • Aspirin is a pain killer that originates from willow 
  • Penicillin was discovered by Alexander Fleming in Penicillium mould

  
• Where drugs are made nowadays

  • These days most drugs are synthesized (made) by chemists working for companies in the pharmaceutical industry 
  • The starting point is still often a chemical extracted from a plant

  
• Testing drugs

  • New medical drugs have to be tested and trialed before being, and this is done to:  
  • Check the toxicity of the drug, in order to make sure it is safe for humans 
  • Check the effectiveness of the drug,  to make sure that it actually treats the disease we’re looking at 
  • Find out the optimum does of the drug

  
• Preclinical testing

  • Preclinical testing is not carried out on humans - this is because the drug could be extremely toxic 
  • Instead preclinical testing is carried out on cells, tissues and on live animals

  
• Clinical testing

  • Once preclinical test have been carried out, the drug then enters clinical testing 
  • Clinical testing is carried out on humans  
  • In the first stage of clinical testing, very low doses of the drug are given to healthy volunteers 
  • If the drug is found to be safe, the clinical testing continues to find the optimum dose of the drug - this will be the best dose to treat the disease with the fewest side-effects

  
• What is a placebo

  • A placebo is a tablet or injection with no active drug in it 
  • Some patients will get better if you give them a placebo 
  • That’s because they think they’re being treated so they believe they’re going to get better

  
• How a double blind trial is carried out

  • A group of patients (the test group) are given the drug 
  • A different group of patients (the control group) receive a placebo , which looks like the drug but has no active ingredient 
  • Neither the patients or the doctors know who has received the drug and who has received the placebo 

  
• Purpose of a double-blind trial

  • The purpose of a double blind trial is to stop bias to ensure that the test is completely fair, incase the doctors pay closer attention to people receiving the active drug 
  • If the patients or doctors knew whether it was the drug or a placebo being used, it might influence the outcome of the test