|
Abstract: The development of a new drug is a
mammoth project. It can take up to 15 years, involves
hundreds of researchers, and costs several hundred
million dollars. It begins with the process of finding a
target in human body that causes a specific disease. In
many cases these are proteins. Intellectual flexibility,
team spirit and a willingness to learn are important
factors for the successful research and development of a
new drug.
Introduction
Next to atomic and space research, development of drugs
at the present time is the most expensive and demanding
enterprise in the economy. The development of a new drug
costs the companies 400 million dollars and in the world
more than five thousand million dollars are set aside
annually for this research. The companies carrying out
this research calculate about 10 to 12 percent of their
turnovers for these expenses. This cost is increasing
and in the course of the last ten years alone has
roughly quadrupled, the increase being due not only to
higher costs of personnel and materials, but also to the
more expensive trials and controls necessary in the
light of the latest scientific knowledge as well as due
to stricter new drugs laws and regulations.
Unfortunately, this has not led to an increase in the
yield of new drugs in the last 10 years but rather to a
decrease.
From whence then does the idea for a new drug come? What
deliberations lead to new developments? How are ideas
from chemistry and biology put into practise? What is
the procedure for testing new drugs in animals and
humans in order to arrive at the highest possible
benefit for man under a maximum of safety, and finally
what are the difficulties which may, right up to the
last moment, cross the path of a new product and
obstruct it? Unfortunately, it is only too rare that the
theoretical ideas obtaining at the beginning of the
development of a new drug later prove to be correct.
Even today, chance too often has a hand in the game,
chance in a scientific laboratory (penicillin,
furosemide), in a chemical factory (prednisolone,
streptomycin) or by the sickbed (oral antidiabetics,
chlorpromazine). It is mostly substances resulting from
the chemist’s synthetic work or possibly also substances
of interest from the point of view of patent rights that
must be examined and tested for their hypothetical
effect. But naturally a very important incentive in our
research is the knowledge of a disease, of a medical
indication for which there is still no effectively
useful medicament available.
For full text of this article contact the publisher on
info@kppub.com
|
The above content is an
abstract only. For the full Article please contact:
KONGPOSH Publications Pvt. Ltd.
ICS House, C-19, Commercial Complex, SDA, Opp. IIT Gate,
New Delhi, India -110016
Tel.: 26855839, 20057149, Fax: 91-11-26855876
Email:
info@kppub.com /
fpc@vsnl.com, Website:
http://www.kppub.com |
