• Question: How do you test the drug to make sure it is safe?

    Asked by to Daren on 17 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Daren Fearon

      Daren Fearon answered on 17 Jun 2014:

      Making sure a drug is safe and effective is a very long and expensive part of drug discovery, it can take up to 10 years and cost billions of pounds. Of course this is necessary so that patients treated with the drug do not suffer harm. Early stages of clinical trials involve testing potential drugs on animal models to work out how safe they are. While it is undesirable to test drugs on animals it is a necessary part of clinical trials and has to follow very strict laws. After the potential drug is shown to be safe in animal models it is tested in volunteers to determine the safe dose of the drug. Following this, it is given to patients to see if it is effective and to measure the long-term effects of taking the drug. If it passes all these trials it can then be approved for use in people.

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