Testing Medicine

• New medicines


  Developed all the time, have to be extensively tested
• Sources of new medicines

  • Extracted from plants
  • Extracted from microorganisms
  • Synthesized by chemists
• Drug testing


  1. Preclinical testing on cells, tissues, or live animals

  2. Clinical testing on healthy volunteers to check safety

  3. Clinical testing to find optimal dose
• Placebo


  Tablet or injection with no active drug
• Double-blind trial


  Test group receives active drug, control group receives dummy drug, neither patients nor doctors know who is receiving what
• Double-blind trials are to stop bias in case doctors pay closer attention to people receiving the active drug
• Where is penicillin made?


  Penicillium notatum, a type of fungus
• What plant is aspirin made from?


  Willow bark
• What plant is digitalis made from?

  Foxglove (digitalis purpurea)