The Two Important Aspects to New Drug Discoveries
Any new drug treating a particular illness is not found and produced overnight, the average total time for drug discovery and clinical development is around 14 years as when dealing with any new drug or chemicals the process needs to be thorough and ensure that two important aspects are observed: How safe the drug is and how effective it is at combating an illness.
Effectiveness Developing any new drug discoveries will require in depth analysis of the illness as well as the makeup of our bodies to find out which proteins are affected by the illness or even cause the illness to occur.
The way that these proteins interact with one another can often help reach an understanding of the illness and how our bodies deal with them.
Once a discovery has been made that affects or combats the illness then refinements will be made to safely increase the drug's effectiveness in treating the illness.
This will mean a balance between making the drug aggressive enough to treat the illness quickly but also make sure it remains safe for consumption and doesn't produce any side effects.
Safety Safety is paramount when developing any drug for human consumption, many people will be aware how destructive and lethal some drugs can be, but there are others which help us so how do we determine what is safe and what isn't? Many years of design and pre-screening with the help of computers and expansive databases may produce a handful of drug candidates, and testing the drug is going to be a required step before any drugs are deemed effective or safe to use.
Testing in animals is required before testing in humans but most drug companies these days have a much higher regard for animal welfare and limit the testing done on animals as much as government guidelines permit.
When testing in humans testing will be carried out on healthy people initially to determine the pharmacokinetic properties of the drug such as the rate of absorption as well as general safety and side effect.
After this is carried out then the drug will be tested on a larger number of people with the illness in question.
These are two important points that pharmacologists and medicinal chemists consider each and every day of their research, it is so that they are able to produce effective drugs that are safe for us to take and cure or treat any illnesses that may have cost lives in the past.
Effectiveness Developing any new drug discoveries will require in depth analysis of the illness as well as the makeup of our bodies to find out which proteins are affected by the illness or even cause the illness to occur.
The way that these proteins interact with one another can often help reach an understanding of the illness and how our bodies deal with them.
Once a discovery has been made that affects or combats the illness then refinements will be made to safely increase the drug's effectiveness in treating the illness.
This will mean a balance between making the drug aggressive enough to treat the illness quickly but also make sure it remains safe for consumption and doesn't produce any side effects.
Safety Safety is paramount when developing any drug for human consumption, many people will be aware how destructive and lethal some drugs can be, but there are others which help us so how do we determine what is safe and what isn't? Many years of design and pre-screening with the help of computers and expansive databases may produce a handful of drug candidates, and testing the drug is going to be a required step before any drugs are deemed effective or safe to use.
Testing in animals is required before testing in humans but most drug companies these days have a much higher regard for animal welfare and limit the testing done on animals as much as government guidelines permit.
When testing in humans testing will be carried out on healthy people initially to determine the pharmacokinetic properties of the drug such as the rate of absorption as well as general safety and side effect.
After this is carried out then the drug will be tested on a larger number of people with the illness in question.
These are two important points that pharmacologists and medicinal chemists consider each and every day of their research, it is so that they are able to produce effective drugs that are safe for us to take and cure or treat any illnesses that may have cost lives in the past.
