Where Do Medicines Come From?

When we are ill, whether it is a cold or a serious illness like a heart attack, most of us expect there to be a medicine that will help us get better.

Whether you want to know how researchers develop new medicines, or why the process takes so long, in this booklet you will find answers to questions such as where medicines come from.

Understanding our bodies

Scientists need to understand how the body works when it is healthy, and what happens when something goes wrong. By studying different chemicals and how they work, scientists, doctors, nurses and pharmacists can know how a medicine will act and which medicine is best for our illness.

Advanced medical technologies that improve and extend life are the result of research on chemicals, cells, animals and the human body carried out over hundreds of years. The living body contains hundreds of billions of cells and is very complex, so we still have a lot to learn. Even today, developing a new, effective medicine can take decades.

Research in many laboratories, both academic and commercial, is looking for new ways to understand diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer's and asthma. The carefully regulated use of animals is a central part of this process.

Did you know?

Experiment

In 1940, eight mice were injected with a lethal dose of bacteria.

Result

The four mice that received penicillin survived, while the others died.

Penicillin

By 1942, penicillin was being used to save dying patients.

Result

Just three years later, penicillin was being produced on an industrial scale, and a Nobel Prize was awarded for its discovery and development.

World War II

Penicillin helped reduce infection spreading in wounds.

Result

Fewer deaths and fewer amputations.

Finding new treatments

It may take a decade or more from the moment a potential new medicine is identified until a doctor or nurse can prescribe it for you. When scientists try to find solutions to medical problems, they use many different types of research, including animal research. In this process, hundreds of thousands of possible new medicines are screened and narrowed down to just a few that have a chance of becoming successful medicines.

Researching new medicines is a long and expensive process. It involves the combined efforts of pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, universities, charities, research institutes, hospitals and government.

Research in many laboratories, both academic and commercial, is looking for new ways to understand diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer's and asthma. The carefully regulated use of animals is a central part of this process.

How does the process work?

Based on research into how our bodies work in sickness and in health, scientists first identify a "target" in the body (usually a protein) that a new medicine should act on in a beneficial way. They then study the target in samples of cells, tissues, animals and humans, and test a range of agents that might affect it. These agents can be plant extracts, chemicals, genes and antibodies. Scientists often use computer modeling to see how a chemical might "fit" the target, like a key fitting a lock.

Millions of combinations of chemicals can be studied, but only a tiny fraction of potential treatments will make it to the next stage.

Did you know? How medicines are made

Finding medicines

Researchers find new medicines in many different places. The search can begin with natural chemicals such as plant extracts, genes or antibodies.

Screening

Thousands of new chemicals can be modeled by computer and prepared in small quantities.

Effectiveness

Whatever their source, potential treatments are mass-tested against target proteins to see whether they are effective.

Final stage

Potential treatments that look promising can go on to be tested in animals.

Narrowing it down

Once they have determined which