Pharmaceuticals is a massive industry that at the last count was worth well in excess of $600 Billion every year. The industry is extremely highly regulated due to the dangers that are inherent in prescription medicines.
When new drugs appear on the market they don’t just happen to be there because they have some kind of effect on the symptoms that they are trying to alleviate. Before drugs can be sold or prescribed they have to undergo an extremely rigorous amount of testing. These tests can take many years to complete but they are mandatory due to the bodies ability to produce unwanted side effects when it comes into contact with new medicines.
You may have seen advertisements calling for ‘healthy volunteers.’ These people are wanted by the pharmaceutical testing laboratories to help evaluate what effects and possible side effects new medicines might have on the human body.
Before drugs get to these stages they are tested extensively in labs on rats, mice and guinea pigs. However, there is still sometimes unwelcome problems when testing on human patients for the first time.
You may remember a news story about some people taking part in a drugs trial in the UK in 2005. They were given intravenous drugs that produced terrible swelling of the whole body, particularly the head and hands. All of the people survived what would have been a very scary experience. Only the very best pharmaceutical recruiters would have been able to recruit for new volunteers for that test.
Next time you are in the drug store, spare a thought for all the hard work and research that has gone into your little pot of pills.
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