VPT 311: General and Systemic Veterinary Pharmacology (2+1)

DRUG DISCOVERY

Most new drugs or drug products are discovered or developed through one of the following methods:

1. Identification or elucidation of a new drug target.
2. Rational drug design based on an understanding of biological mechanisms, drug receptor structure, enzymes sites etc.
3. Chemical modification of an existing molecule.
4. Screening for biologic activity of natural products, previously discovered chemical entities, and libraries of peptides, nucleic acids, and other organic molecules.
5. The explosive growth in biotechnology and cloning has paved the way to identify genes to produce peptides and proteins. Efforts continue to focus on the discovery of new targets and approaches, based on studies with genomics, proteomics, nucleic acids and molecular pharmacology for drug therapy.
6. Combinations of known drugs to obtain additive or synergistic effects or a repositioning of a known drug for a new therapeutic use.