development of new drugs 3.1.9

• a good medicine is effective in preventing or curing a disease or makes you feel better
• a good medicine is safe and not too toxic and doesnt carry unacceptable side effects
• a good medicine is stable and can be used under normal conditions for quite a long time
• a good medicine is effectively taken into and removed from body so it reaches the target area and then be removed from the system safely
• thalidomide was originally used as a sleeping pill, then it was discovered to help with morning sickness, however it was not tested as safe for pregnant women and it caused deformed babies
• the aims of drug testing are to prove its safe and that it works
• placebo is the control treatment in human drug tests and is a substance that has no therapeutic effect
• a double blind trial is when neither the participants nor the researchers know who is getting the treatment and who is getting the placebo
• placebo and blind trial are used so the patient doesnt know what they have been treated with and would therefore give more accurate results on the effectiveness of the treatment
• 1. decide which disease to treat
• 2) look at natural remedies that already exist and analyse the chemicals in them
• 3) synthesise lots of chemicals in the laboratory
• 4) screen the drugs in the laboratory
• 5) test the drugs on animals
• 6) test the drugs on healthy people
• 7) test the drugs on real patients
• 8) drugs licensed for use by doctors
• dug trials are necessary to ensure the medicines have all the characteristics of a good medicine
• drug trials are very expensive to complete because they take a long time and require a lot of people to take part
• toxicity is how harmful the drug is
• efficacy is how effective the medicine is
• a dose is how much you need of the drug at a safe level
• preclinical testing is a testing that takes place in a lab using cells, tissues and live animals
• clinical trials use healthy volunteers and patients where low doses are given to check for side effects
• the results of drug trials are published so other doctors can check the results to prevent false claims
• drugs were originally extracted from plants
• penicillin was discovered in the early 20th century when scientists were looking for chemicals to kill bacteria. in 1928, Alexander Fleming left a lid off his bacteria culture and noticed a clearing in the jelly and realised something had killed the bacteria
• synthetic drugs are easier and cheaper to produce and more powerful than using plant extracts