Developing drugs

Question 1

1st stage of drug testing

Answer 1

1) in preclinical testing, drugs are tested on human cells and tissues in a lab
2) You don’t use human cells and tissues to test drugs that affect whole or multiple body systems so often an animal is used e.g. if testing drug for blood pressure

Question 2

2nd stage of drug testing

Answer 2

1) Test the drug on live animals. This is to test for efficacy, find out toxicity and find the best dosage.

2) Law in UK states new drugs must be tested on two different live mammals. Some think its cruel but others believe its the safest way to make sure drug is not too dangerous before its given to humans.

Question 3

3rd stage of drug testing

Answer 3

1) If drug passes tests on animals then its tested on human volunteers in a clinical trial.
2) First the drug is tested on healthy volunteers. This is to make sure it doesn’t have harmful side effects when the body is working normally. At the start of the trial the dosage is low and gradually increases.
3) If the results of the test on HV is good the drugs are then tested on people suffering from illness. The optimum dosage is used ( when it’s most effective and has few side effects)

Question 4

3rd stage of drug testing

Answer 4

4) To test how well the drug works, patients are randomly put into 2 groups. 1 = given the new drug and 2 = given placebo. This is so doctors can see the actual different the drug makes - allows placebo effect .

5) The clinical trails are blind often double blind so patient does not know whether they are receiving real or placebo drug and results can be gathered. Also so that doctors monitoring patients and analysing the results aren’t subconsciously influenced by their knowledge . - removed bias

Results of drug testing and drug trials aren’t published until they’re peer reviewed and this helps to prevent false claims.