Discovery of new drugs

• Drugs have been made from plants throughout the course of history and are still being used today.
• The drug that was developed from willow bark is aspirin. It contains salicylic acid which is less irritating to the stomach.
• Plants are still used today but most plant drugs are now created in a lab by scientists.
• The two main stages of drug testing are pre-clinical testing and clinical testing.
• Preclinical tests are done to check if it would be alright to use on humans-animal testing.
• Many drugs fail preclinical testing because they damage cells and they don’t work.
• if the drug has passed the preclinical test they will then be tested on humans.
• The country where new medicines have to undergo preclinical testing is the UK.
• It is illegal to test tobacco and cosmetics on animals in the UK.
• A preclinical test involves testing a product on an animal and then observing them carefully.
• Clinical tests are those on humans.
• They will test on healthy humans first just to make sure they are safe.
• If they are safe the drugs will then be tested on people who are ill to ensure that they work.
• Doctors can determine if the drug is better than those that already exist by asking the patient if they feel better or not.
• The 3 strategies that are applied to prevent bias are:

  -to use a placebo.

  -blind trials

  -double blind trials.
• A placebo is a pill that doesn’t contain any active ingredients.
• A placebo is used as they don’t harm a person.
• A blind trial is when the patients are blind folded/ not told if they are in the trial group or placebo group.
• In a double blind trial neither the doctor nor the patient knows which treatment has been given.
• Double blind trials get rid of bias altogether.