Drug Development And Testing

Question 1

Where does peniciln come from and what can it be used for?

Answer 1

It comes from penecilin mouls and is used as an antibiotic

Question 2

What are digitalis and where do they come from?

Answer 2

They come from fox gloves and are used as heart medication

Question 3

Where does Asprin come from and what is it used for?

Answer 3

It comes from willow trees and is used as a painkiller

Question 4

What is a good medical drug?

Answer 4

• a drug with a long shelf life
•limited side effects and not toxic
•easy to take/administer
•can be successfully removed from the body

Question 5

What is thalidomide?

Answer 5

• It was a drug developed as a sleeping pill was found to reduce morning sickness in pregnant women
•However it was found that women who took the pill gave birth to babies with limb deformities

Question 6

What does a potential new drug have to be tested on?

Answer 6

Dose- How much of the drug is needed
Effiacy-Does the drug work?
Toxicity- Is the drug safe?

Question 7

What pre clinical testing must be done to a potentially new drug?

Answer 7

•First of all the drug must be tested on cell cultures, tissue cultures and isolated whole organs in the lab to test for toxicity.
• After that animal testing must be done (pregnant animals must also be tested) to find out more about how the drug works on a whole living organism. This also helps tell scientist the dosage needed and side effects of the drug. In the UK animal testing must be carried out on 2 different live mammals
•Animal testing will also continue to see the longer term effects of the medicine

Question 8

What clinical testing must be done on a potentially new drug?

Answer 8

*After pre clinical testing, clinical testing on humans must be done. This includes testing on a small number of healthy volunteers to look at the safety and side effects of the medicine of people and only then can doctors test for the optimum dosage for the drug and effiacy
* double blind trials are also carried out where some of the volunteers are given a placebo drug. Neither the doctor or patients know who has who
-.A peer review must also be done. This ensures the testing is unbiased and helps prevent false claims