Developing New Medicines P6

Question 1

How are new medicines tested in preclinical trials?

Answer 1

New medicines must go through pre-clinical trials which involves a computer simulating a humans response to a drug so you don’t need to test on live animals, then they are tested on human tissues and finally test it on animals, the law in Britain says a drug must be tested on 2 different live mammals.

Question 2

How are new medicines tested using clinical trials?

Answer 2

First the medicine is tested for safety on healthy volunteers to make sure for any harmful side effects. If the tests are good the drug can be tested on sufferers of the illness. Human clinical trials take a very long time because it can take a very long time for side effects to come in.

Question 3

Why aren’t drugs tested on sick people for safety?

Answer 3

Sick people are likely to be more vulnerable to any damage the drug could do, which is why it isn’t tested on them.

Question 4

What is the other group of clinical trials?

Answer 4

The placebo effect, a patient is given a substance that looks like the drug but it doesn’t do anything and they expect it to work and so they feel better even though the treatment doesn’t do anything. These trials are blind so the patient doesn’t know what they’re getting.