• Question: what is pharmacology?

    Asked by scienceholic to Tim on 13 Jun 2011. This question was also asked by danielbarrett.
    • Photo: Tim Millar

      Tim Millar answered on 13 Jun 2011:

      The study of drugs and how they work, simple as that really. Its a subject which takes compounds made by chemists and tests them in cells, or isolated organs like the heart or in people and measures what happens. Using all these tests we can see how safe drugs are or work out what side effects they might have.

      Sometimes the chemists make very toxic compounds or chemicals that wont dissolve (come on Sarah!) and there are many more chemicals waiting to be tested. But it can take a long time and lots of money something like $500 million over 10 to 15 years from the day the chemist makes the drug to the day it gets put into patients as it has to go through lots of tests and regulations.

      You can study it at University as a single subject and many of the careers will be in drug companies or in Universities either hands on or part of thr regulation of drugs.

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