• Question: have you ever created a drug? if so, what did it do and was it particularly popular?

    Asked by 975drug49 to Hannah on 8 Nov 2016.
    • Photo: Hannah Bolt

      Hannah Bolt answered on 8 Nov 2016:

      Hi 975drug49,

      Thanks for your question!

      I’ve never created a commercial drug, that takes a lot of time and money to pass through what we call clinical trials. In a clinical trial, scientists have to make sure that the drug works as it is supposed to and doesn’t have any side effects, that it is worth the cost and is safe for humans to use. Sometimes this can take up to 20 years and costs billions of pounds!

      I have made lots of potential drugs in my research though (over 500 separate ones!) and am currently seeing if any of these would be good enough to test as real drugs.

      The medicines I make are designed to kill parasites (single celled creatures) that cause the neglected tropical disease leishmaniasis. My drugs work by attatcking the parasite cell membrane (a cell membrane is like the skin of the parasite, so you can think of my drugs making holes in the skin of the parasite). This is very different to how normal drugs affect parasites. If my molecules work very well, they could be very popular because they might work better against drug resistant parasites than the drugs doctors use at the moment. Wish me luck!

      Hannah

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