Drugs come from a variety of sources, both from plants and microorganisms. Drugs used to come from plants only, but recently, many now come from microorganisms, most notably penicillin, which came from a fungi.
Other drugs come from plant sources, such as morphine, which is taken from plant seeds, then the chemicals are concentrated so they can be effectively used for their pain killing remedies.
There is a long and complicated process to ensure the drug is effective, safe, and that the benefits of use outweigh any negative side effects or risks associated with taking it when trying to develop it for markets. The first stage in developing a drug is the finding of an able chemical or substance (for example the drug’s active ingredients), for example, if a disease is caused by a particular enzyme, finding a chemical that reacts with that enzyme. The next step is to test this drug on animals, for example lab mice. Drugs must be tested on animals before they can be given to humans. This testing on animals is primarily to ensure the safety of the drug so it’s safe for humans. This is done because animal lives, especially mice, are disposable and can be mass bred, whilst humans can not. There are some ethical implications, but thinking that there can be progress without seeing if something’s dangerous on an animal and testing it directly on a human is much more ethically questionable.
If these tests go well and there aren’t major complications, then small trials are carried out on small groups of people, whom are volunteers. Here, the medicine is often tested on healthy people, to observe how it works in the body and whether there are any side effects when more of the drug is given. It is often tested against a standard treatment or a double-blind placebo trial (half have the drug, half have a placebo, however neither the patients or doctor knows who has what). Having a placebo allows the doctors to see whether it’s really the drug that’s improving the patient’s condition or just the brain thinking that they think they’re being treated. The standard treatment allows for doctors to observe how the effective the drug is and in this case they know who has what. This is beneficial too because the doctors can pinpoint exactly how the drug will behave within the body and be able to see if there are any major side effects like if the drug triggers the immune system to act in an hostile way towards the body. However, they can also see if its acting as it should in helping the body, for example, with inflammatory responses.
If things continue to go well in the drug tests, then the drug can be prescribed to people who have the specific pathogen in order to test how the drug will react and if it will be effective
Even after all the testing, scientists will scrutinise the tests and actively attempt to find flaws in the experiment, even the tiniest ones; a bit like a lawyer in court. This is done to ensure that there was absolutely no compromised variables. This is crucial because even the tiniest mishandling can have huge implications if allowed into the market. Due to this, there are usually many tests, counter tests and re-runs of tests in order to secure that the drug is in no way dangerous to people. This is why it takes many, many years for a drug to enter the market. The timeline can range anywhere from five to ten years, or perhaps more.
.
Recent Comments