Development of Medicines Practice Questions

In which stage of the development of a new medicine is the medicine first tested on animals?

Put a cross ( ☒ ) in the box next to your answer.

☐ A discovery

☐ B development

☐ C preclinical testing

☐ D clinical testing

Name the stage of development in which the new medicine is first given to healthy human volunteers.

Explain why antibiotics can be used to treat this patient's tonsillitis.

Three weeks later the same patient has a cold, which is caused by a virus. The doctor does not prescribe antibiotics.

Give one reason why antibiotics would not be prescribed for the cold.

Write the four letters in the correct order, starting with the first stage.

first ____ ____ ____ ____ last

Give one reason why a new medicine is tested on cultured cells and on animals before it is given to healthy volunteers.

Scientists have extracted a chemical from a fungus living on tree bark. On agar plates, the chemical stops two species of bacteria growing.

The scientists estimate that it will be at least 12 years before a doctor can prescribe this chemical as an antibiotic.

Explain why it takes so long for a newly discovered antibiotic to reach patients.

The antibiotic vancomycin stops bacteria building their cell walls. Human cells do not have cell walls.

Explain why vancomycin can be used to treat bacterial infections in humans.

Explain why antibiotics cannot be used to treat influenza.

Later, the same patient develops a bacterial chest infection and is given an antibiotic.

Name one process in a bacterium that an antibiotic could disrupt.

Explain how compound Z would be developed into a medicine that doctors could prescribe, and why it would be expected to treat a bacterial infection without harming the patient's own cells.