The Pharmaceutical Development Industry

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by: jayso'keefe
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Word Count: 405

We live in an age of continual innovation in every field, and pharmaceuticals are no exception. Pharmaceutical companies are always formulating new drugs as a result of their research in an attempt to meet the demands of a society that is accustomed to constant medical innovation. When a patient goes to the doctor for a health problem and a drug is prescribed to treat his symptoms, that patient does not always wonder how that drug came to be available. It is, however, nearly always a fascinating tale, a tale that is not often told.

Drug development companies have developed a complicated process for research, and from start to finish can take many years. The first phase in the preclinical stage of drug development is to study a particular disease. Understanding and internalizing how a disease develops and progresses are absolutely central to drug research firms. After all, how can a researcher experiment on possible treatments if she doesn't know why the person is sick?

Once researchers have a clear idea or at least a workable hypothesis as to how a particular disease behaves, they are free to start introducing substances to see if they have any effect on the progression of the disease. This process is lengthy, and can take many years of trial and error before any progress, if any, is made. Sometimes researchers only compile a long list of things that don't work.

Drug formulation begins with a research method known as "screening." When testing an antibiotic, for instance, a sample is placed in a bacterial culture. If it works in that scenario, then the next step is to test in laboratory animals. This method is very effective in allowing researchers to test a drug while ensuring the safety and efficacy in humans.

If all that research is successful, the result is a drug that appears to work and is ready to be tested. The next phase in the process involves extensive drug trials, a process that can take up to 10 years to achieve FDA approval in the U.S.

A sobering statistic to consider: only about one in every 5,000 to 10,000 compounds formulated ever achieves FDA approval.

When patients are prescribed a particular medication, they rarely know or understand the lengthy process it took to get that product to market. Drug research is an absorbing field; years of research and testing result in innovation if you're lucky!

About the Author

Next locate additonal resources on pharmaceutical formulation development and the analytical method used in drug research and delivery. The health and safety of the world depends upon this work..

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