Aspirin-its preparation, history and applications

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Aspirin-its preparation, history and applications

  • How drugs are discovered and developed

Pharmacologist along with chemist focus on a specific disease and unmet patient needs in order to discover new drugs. They search for biological targets within the body that play a role in a given disease. Unique molecules are found or created that some day might be medicines.

 

Lead Compound Selection, is the testing of compounds that might undergo the long expensive drug develop process.

Random Screening- uses existing 'library' of chemical agents. This is the simplest method but the odds are low and patience is needed.

Combinational Chemistry Screening- uses a compound (from existing library) as a base, then randomly adding amino acids or molecule segments of other agents to the base compound in order to enhance the base compounds activity and disease fighting potential. The enhanced compounds are then tested in rapid screening test. However this method is complex and costly but it improves the odds.

Target Synthesis- targets the disease for drug intervention. For example High Blood Pressure would be studied in detail. Consequently this method still requires screening of hundreds of compounds and extensive amount of research to understand a particular disease process.

Drug Modeling- uses more high technology. This method manipulates chemical structures by computers so that they can attach to, activate or deactivate proteins that interfere with or maintain the body's normal functioning. The model is used to enhance the properties of the other methods but the cost for designer compounds are significant because of the huge amount of research that is needed to identify biochemical target and establish their molecular structure.

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  • How safety of drugs is checked before being used on the public

A drug undergoes 3 clinical phases before being used on the public.

PHASE 1

This is designed to determine the safety of the new drug, how best to administer it and the correct dosage- (one that will minimize desirable side effects).

20-30 patients (volunteers) are used to find out how the drug behaves in their body, so their blood and urine will be frequently monitored. Even though drugs in this will have been already tested in a laboratory.

PHASE 2

After the correct dosage has ...

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