A recent article published in the New York Times quoted the astounding statistic that as many as 7,000–10,000 deaths in the United States can be attributed on an annual basis to prescription errors. Countless hospital days, loss of productivity, and an atmosphere of distrust of modern medicine all result from such errors. Many causes can be found for these mistakes; drugs with completely diff…
Today, computers are so ubiquitous in pharmaceutical research and development that it may be hard to imagine a time when there were no computers to assist the medicinal chemist or biologist. A quarter-century ago, the notion of a computer on the desk of every scientist and company manager was not even contemplated. Now, computers are absolutely essential for generating, managing, and transmitti…
More than six decades have elapsed since the introduction of corticosteroids into the pharmacologic armamentarium of pediatricians. Despite the widespread clinical use of these agents for many years, several questions remain concerning their appropriate therapeutic role, indications, possible regimens, and adverse effects. The discovery of corticosteroids can be considered one of the most impor…
After over half a century of chemotherapy research, cancer remains one of the most difficult life-threatening diseases to treat, a consequence of factors which include limitations of animal models, tumour diversity, drug resistance and side effects of therapy. This introductory overview gives a brief perspective on the discovery of historical cytotoxic and anti-hormonal drugs, and then highligh…
Mass spectrometry (MS) differs from other common forms of organic spectral analysis in that the sample does not absorb radiation such as infrared, ultraviolet, or radio waves from the electromagnetic spectrum. In contrast to infrared (IR) or nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometry, both of which identify compounds with specificity comparable to that of mass spectrometry, MS is a destructi…
The administration of one drug (A) can alter the action of another (B) by one of two general mechanisms: • Modification of the pharmacological effect of B without altering its concentration in the tissue fluid (pharmacodynamic interaction) • Alteration of the concentration of B that reaches its site of action (pharmacokinetic interaction). 1) For such interactions to be important clinically…