How are new drugs developed?

Drug development and antihistamines

In this video I describe how the modern method of drug development including the cell culture (in vitro) and computer modelling (in silica) phase, the animal model phase (in vivo) and the clinical phases of development. I discuss how the translation from preclinical research to clinical use is very difficult and I address some of the reasons while it often fails. I then jump into the two major drug types including biologics and small molecules. I discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each.  Then I discribe the drug development of antihistamines as an example and the role of phase 4 clinical trials in monitoring drug safety. Lastly, I touch on the phase four trial of the AstraZeneca vaccine. 

Learning objectives 

Describe the basic steps of drug development
Explain all the steps of clinical drug trials
Discuss the translational failure issue in drug development and provide some reasons for the low success rates
Describe biologics and small molecule drugs, and explain the advantages and disadvantages of each
Discuss the the principles of drug develop ment with antihistamines as an example