Shenhao started after the college entrance examination

An Liang still maintains voice calls with Huang Guoxiang, and there are differences between the two parties.

"Huang, do you know how difficult it is to develop new drugs?"An Liang asked.

Huang Guoxiang was silent for a moment before responding negatively,"I'm not sure."

"I didn’t know it before, but I later read some information, so I have a certain understanding of the difficulty of developing new drugs."An Liang explained

"If we compare human disease to a machine failure, then this malfunctioning machine has tens or even hundreds of millions of parts. The first step in developing a new drug is equivalent to tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of parts. The problematic part was found."An Liang added

"As for which part is broken, it is completely unknown. We can only search slowly. This search process is called [finding the target]】"An Liang describes the first step in researching new drugs through metaphors

"When the target point is found and which part is damaged, how to repair the part can be compared to the process of unlocking a lock."An Liang continued to use metaphors to explain

"To treat the corresponding disease is equivalent to opening a completely unknown lock cylinder, so it is necessary to equip this lock cylinder with a key. However, because we do not know what the condition of the lock cylinder is, hundreds of keys are needed to equip it. Thousands or even thousands of tests, this process is called [finding lead compounds]】"Anliang added

"We assume that everything goes well and find a suitable key through supercomputer simulation experiments, but we still need to analyze whether this key is reasonable."An Liang added

"The matching of lead compounds is based on in vitro testing, which may have various inherent defects, such as insufficient activity of the lead compound, unstable chemical structure, toxicity, poor selectivity, unreasonable pharmacokinetic properties, etc."An Liang explained in detail

"The next step is to [optimize the lead compound] and optimize all the above problems one by one, but the problem comes again because I don’t know how to optimize! So it requires very time-consuming and lengthy experiments."An Liang added

"Even if these problems are overcome, the lead compound is optimized, and it is determined that this key can be successfully unlocked and the problem is solved, the above experiments are only in vitro tests after all, so the next step is to proceed to [in vivo testing], that is, [animal testing] experiment】"An Liang continued talking

"The reason why animal experiments are conducted is also for safety reasons. After all, it is impossible to test on humans right from the start, right?"An Liang joked,"In order to verify the effect of the new drug, not only animal testing is needed, but also the control group and the experimental group are required to analyze and determine the effect, especially issues related to pharmacokinetics. After all, after sending the key to unlock, you still need to Once the key is taken out, it can't always be left in it?"

"If the above problems are solved one by one, then we still need to consider the issue of pharmaceutical preparations. For example, should it be taken orally or injected, or will it be broken down in the stomach and then be absorbed by the large intestine?"An Liang patiently explained the situation to Huang Guoxiang.

"The failure rate of new drug research and development from finding targets to drug preparations exceeds 97%, and if any link is wrong, you have to start over from scratch. There are no shortcuts."An Liang sighed.

"If the drug formulation is successful and all toxicology, pharmacokinetics, etc. problems are solved, then the next step is the first phase of clinical trials, recruiting 20-100 volunteers to verify drug tolerance, pharmacokinetics, etc. questions to see how much medication is safe and effective."An Liang explained the issues of clinical research again.

"If the first clinical phase performs well, 100-500 patients with corresponding symptoms can be recruited to further verify the effectiveness of the drug and determine its effect."An Liang added

"Then there is the third clinical phase, which requires recruiting 300-5,000 patients for testing. Through the medication use of more patient samples, it is further clear that there is no problem with the drug."An Liang added again

"If there are no problems in the third clinical phase, the research on the new drug has basically come to an end and has finally entered the stage where it can be marketed. However, selling on the market does not mean making a lot of money, because selling on the market will also face problems with the audience. For example, the Zolgensma drug developed by Nova Pharmaceuticals, which spent huge sums of money, is still losing money and has been criticized by patients all over the world. and the moral kidnapping of keyboard warriors, requiring Nova Pharmaceuticals to lower its sales price."An Liang teased

"After all, according to the keyboard warrior, if Nova Pharmaceuticals insists on asking for money when lives are at stake, isn't that a disregard for life?"An Liang sneered.

"How could these keyboard warriors see that Nova Pharmaceuticals spent six years and spent US$10.3 billion on research and development expenses when developing Zolgensma?"An Liang mocked contemptuously.

Isn't it right for a keyboard warrior to be generous to others?