A narrative life journey of a prescription drug molecule: Fromchemical synthesis to receptor binding in fish brain

摘要

Many health care providers have only a cursory knowledge of the numerous stepsinvolved in the production and supply of the pharmaceutical products we provide toour patients. The purpose of this article is therefore to provide a short, explicitoverview, via a case study, of the many steps involved in a typical “journey” of apharmaceutical drug molecule. It is the hope that, by elucidating this process morethoroughly, readers will appreciate the complex linkages as well as the potentialpitfalls that may implicitly occur at each step in the overall global distributionprocess. Such an understanding is increasingly important, given Canada’s major drugshortage issues that have complicated pharmaceutical care for patients since theearly 2010s. Furthermore, this narrative will also briefly detail contributions from thepharmaceutical sciences towards ensuring the continuing supply or integrity ofroutinely used pharmaceutical products.