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of the operation language that controls information processing, analysis, and communication. |
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Drug development is in an analogous situation. We have seen an evolution from the age of botanicals to the age of chemical synthetic discovery and now to the age of biotechnology and gene manipulation, which is dawning before us. Each area still can develop, but the shift in direction is fundamental to our scientific development. Even taking these major changes into account, drug discovery and development will be fundamentally altered by the information age. The concept of the information age first conceived by Alvin and Heidi Toffler has been correctly perceived by them to be revolutionary in its effects on society, just as the first two waves were in their era. The agricultural revolution and the industrial revolution were fundamental changes in society, as will be the information age. The Tofflers describe an era in their book entitled Future Shock [1], when the pace of change in modern life is so great as to disenfranchise individuals from the process that society is undergoing. While this is a real problem for society and a problem with political dimensions, failure of our institutions and our corporate structures to adjust will bring considerable societal and economic disruption. For these reasons, an understanding of the evolution of drug discovery and development and how this evolution will be affected by the information age is essential for those working in drug discovery and development. |
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II. The Age of Botanicals |
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Anthropologists tell us that from the early hunter-gatherer groups, man made use of herbals. Whether they were foods, items of religious significance, or used as medication cannot be clearly discerned. As civilization progressed, remedies from plants developed further. The earliest folklore relates stories of plant medicinals. The Bible contains passages eluding to medicinal herbs and plants. In fact, all the major religions discuss plant remedies as part of their sacred works. There are many stories in pharmacology relating to the use of medicinal plants and the work of herbalists in the early discovery of drugs. I recall from my yearly lecture in pharmacology on inotropic agents, the story of William Withering, the physician from Birmingham, England, who on his charity rounds in Shropshire saw that an herbal potion was used successfully to treat a woman with dropsy (CHF). Withering's botanical training in Edenbrough permitted him to identify the probable active ingredient, the leaf of the foxglove plant. After ten years of clinical experimentation, he developed a series of case studies deliminating the dose range from minimal effective dose to toxicity. He categorized the adverse side-effect profile of the digitalis leaf and its potentially life-threatening toxicities. He noted the adverse outcomes and carefully chronicled the conditions that the drug was most useful |
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