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Where do medicines come from? Activity cards One copy of these cards is need for each group. They should be cut up and shuffled randomly. The correct sequence of the cards is as they are presented here. The drug discovery process is complex and the precise sequence of activities will vary in practice so students are likely to find the task challenging at first. ----------------------------------------------------------- Basic research Researchers build up knowledge of our bodies and illnesses and search for ‘targets’ for new medicines. A ‘target’ might be a molecule in the body that causes disease and which a new a medicine can attach itself to and neutralise. Some basic research involves animals. ----------------------------------------------------------- Computer modelling Once researchers have found a ‘target’ for a new medicine, they look for a treatment. Thousands of chemicals are ‘modelled’ using computers. Only a few hundred are chosen as good ‘candidates’. © Understanding Animal Research 2011 This teaching resource may be reproduced in whole or in part for any not-for-profit educational use www.UnderstandingAnimalResearch.org.uk ----------------------------------------------------------- In vitro Possible new treatments are tested on cell or tissue sample in vitro which means in glass because it is done in test tubes and petri dishes instead of living creatures like mice. Most are rejected. ----------------------------------------------------------- Animal research The most promising candidate treatments are tested using live animals, but only if there is no alternative. Animal research is often needed because things that work in vitro, in a tissue sample, often don’t work in a living body. ----------------------------------------------------------- Safety testing Before a new medicine can be tested on people, it has to be tested for safety on two species of animal by law. The safety testing helps to work out the right dose and to look out for side effects. © Understanding Animal Research 2011 This teaching resource may be reproduced in whole or in part for any not-for-profit educational use www.UnderstandingAnimalResearch.org.uk ----------------------------------------------------------- Testing on healthy people The first people to take a new medicine are healthy volunteers. A few of them take small doses to check that it is safe. Most of the volunteers are men, because they can’t get pregnant. This is the first stage ‘clinical trial’. ----------------------------------------------------------- Testing on patients New medicines are tested on groups of between 20 and 200 people who suffer from the illness, to see how they respond. This is a ‘clinical trial’. © Understanding Animal Research 2011 This teaching resource may be reproduced in whole or in part for any not-for-profit educational use www.UnderstandingAnimalResearch.org.uk ----------------------------------------------------------- Randomised clinical trials The final stage of testing on people is the randomised clinical trial. This is large scale and involves lots of people. ‘Randomised’ means the patients are divided into two groups randomly, like in a lottery. One group gets the medicine, the other gets a ‘placebo’ that doesn’t do anything. The trial is ‘double blind’. That means nobody involved knows who is getting the placebo and who is getting the medicine. This is to make sure that nobody is getting or feeling better just because they think they are getting a treatment. New medicines must work better than placebos! ----------------------------------------------------------- Licensing If a medicine passes all the clinical trials, a special committee looks at all the evidence and decides if it can get a licence. The licence means that it is considered safe and effective. ----------------------------------------------------------- Prescription When a medicine has a licence a doctor can prescribe it. But the testing doesn’t stop here. Scientists continue to monitor the drug to look out for problems like unexpected side effects. © Understanding Animal Research 2011 This teaching resource may be reproduced in whole or in part for any not-for-profit educational use www.UnderstandingAnimalResearch.org.uk