Making Medicine

FROM DISCOVERY ΤΟ DOCTORS

- by Grazyna Söderbom

Imagine coming home from school with a raging fever. Yesterday you cut your finger on a piece of dirty glass, and now it's all red and swollen. It's infected. You feel awful. Fortunately, your doctor prescribes some pills that you must take twice a day, every day, for two weeks. Soon you're feeling great again.

What if no medicine existed for infections? Long, long ago, your local wise person might brew herb or flower potions to try to help. Or you might get better anyway because of your body's fantastic ability to fight germs. But there is a risk that without modern medicine, you might never recover. Today making medicines is a scientific process—and a big business—with strict rules.

What Makes Us Sick?

Scientists and doctors study the things that make us sick. There can be so many culprits. Some come from the outside. We "catch germs" like bacteria, viruses, and fungi. These may cause infections.

Sometimes the problem lies inside. Maybe a body system can't make vital chemicals, like those that help us stop bleeding or that prevent too much sugar sloshing about in our blood. Worse still, our body cells can go rogue. When they do their own thing, we can get gruesome glitches in our body joints or even cancer.

Who Makes New Medicines, and How?

Once scientists know the root cause of a disease, they work to discover ways to kill germs, replace missing body chemicals, or combat mayhem-causing rogue cells. They aim to create new medicines to make people better. Often, scientists toil behind closed doors of medicine-making factories-aka pharmaceutical companies. Their work is top secret and competitive because success can mean fame and fortune.