Ces Urol 2009, 13(2):141-148 | DOI: 10.48095/cccu2009003
The discovery and development of a drug is a process of many steps. The purpose of drug discovery is to identify chemicals that have a great chance of providing therapeutic benefit. Experiments designed to discover pharmacologic effect in patients have their fundamentals in the experimental data obtained from animals. Clinical experiments in humans classically are divided into at least three phases. Phase I presents first in man administration of study drugs. Phase II shows the response to treatment in patients with target disease state. The keystone to any drug development program and the gold standard of experimentation with drugs in humans is the randomized, controlled clinical trial. These trials (phase III) are designed to test whether a drug is efficacious in comparison to current standard therapy. Phase IV trial is also known as Post Marketing Surveillance Trial. Phase IV trials involve the safety surveillance (pharmacovigilance) of drug after it receives permission to be sold. In this paper are discussed some basic terms relating to drug development, pre clinical and clinical experiments.
Received: February 18, 2009; Accepted: March 23, 2009; Published: March 1, 2009