Developing Drugs Flashcards
(13 cards)
What are the three main stages in drug testing?
Preclinical testing on cells and tissues, preclinical testing on live animals, human testing in a clinical trial
When testing on animals in a drug trial, what are you testing for?
Efficacy, toxicity, and dosage
When testing on humans in a drug trial, who do you test on first and why?
Healthy people, this is to make sure the drug doesn’t have any side effects when the body is working normally.
After drugs are tested on healthy volunteers in a drug trial, who is tested next, and what is found?
People suffering from the illness the drug is treating, and the optimum dosage is found
What is the optimum dosage?
The dose of a drug that is the most effective and has few side effects.
What is a placebo?
A substance that looks like the real drug but has no active ingredients. It’s used in clinical trials to test how effective a new drug is, by comparing the effects of the real drug to the placebo.
How is the drug tested for how well it works?
Patients are randomly put into 2 groups. One is given the drug, and the other is given a placebo. The patients do not know if they are given the drug or placebo.
What’s a double blind trial?
When neither the doctor or patient knows if a drug or placebo is given in the trial until the results have come back.
Why are the doctors not aloud to know if a placebo is given in a double blind trial?
So they aren’t subconsciously influenced by their knowledge
When are the results of drug testing and drug trials published and why?
They aren’t published until they have been through peer review. This helps to prevent false claims.
What is meant by the efficacy of a drug?
Whether the drug works and produces the effect you are looking for
Name the organism that penicillin originates from
Penicillium mould
