Chemistry

Drug Chemistry

Medicinal chemistry is a stimulating field as it links many scientific disciplines and allows for collaboration with other scientists in researching and developing new drugs. Themes include drug design, metabolism and toxicology with an understanding of synthetic organic chemistry. They also improve the processes by which existing pharmaceuticals are made. It deals with the facts of chemistry, pharmaco analysis and the chemical analysis of compounds in the form of like small organic molecules such as insulin glargine, erythropoietin, and others. The four processes involved when a drug is taken are absorption, distribution, metabolism and elimination or excretion (ADME). Drugs interact and bind to the binding sites through intermolecular bonds (ionic, h-bonds, van der Waals, Dipole- Dipole hydrophobic). The process how drug distribute and reach its target (ADME) and what will happen to the drug is pharmacokinetic. How the drugs interact with its target is known as pharmacodynamics. Careers in this field include -

1. Basic research into how various chemicals affect biological system

2. Drug development, including formulating drugs used to treat patients with diseases

3. Testing potential new bio-active compounds in patient populations

4.Developing guidelines for how new pharmaceuticals will be such as chemists at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) who review new drug applications from pharmaceutical companies and the processes by which the substances are made.