3/19/2021 Interdisciplinary pre-release material May 2021

Reference 3: Informative public relations video on drug discovery

Informative public relations video on drug discovery

01:55

Video script:
Drug discovery is the process of identifying new compounds that could, one day, become a medicine.

At the start of the process, thousands of natural and synthetic compounds are tested to see if they have a positive effect
on a model of a specific disease.

A range of in vitro and in vivo assays are undertaken; pharmacokinetic and other studies allow the understanding of how
potential drugs will be processed by the body, and toxicology studies help determine safety.

This entire process is extremely expensive and takes three to six years to complete.

After all of this, there are sometimes no viable compounds. That’s why patents are so important, as drug companies need
to ensure they have enough funds to keep researching other options.

In the clinical trial phase, human patients are used to ensure compounds are safe and can actually help treat a disease.

Phase one involves using a small number of healthy volunteers to test for safety and dosing.

Phase two uses a small group of patients to assess efficacy and side effects.

Phase three involves a large group of patients to see if there is a significant therapeutic effect.

Where possible, randomized control trials (or RCTs) are used for these phases. RCTs allow for the most accurate
understanding of how a drug works and are thus the gold-standard method.

The failure rate of drug development is between 80 and 90 percent.

Additionally, due to the large number of patients, doctors and resources involved, clinical trials are extremely expensive
and time consuming.

It takes a lot of careful planning and expertise to ensure that the medicines people need are safe and effective.

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