Posted by ed_uk on August 7, 2005, at 15:17:01
In reply to Re: Stereochemistry: optical isomers » ed_uk, posted by Nickengland on August 7, 2005, at 8:48:30
Hi Nick!
>So when they made ibuprofen or celexa, is it the case they did not know that part of, one of the optical isomers was actually inactive?
They would have known that R-citalopram is inactive because the pharmacology of both optical isomers has to be studied. Celexa is a racemic mixture - it consists of 50% R-isomer and 50% S-isomer. A racemic mixture is easy and cheap to synthesise - this is why many drugs are racemic mixtures. Pure escitalopram (Lexapro) is more expensive (and more technically demanding) to synthesise.
>...ah maybe we can take that out, market a new drug to then make $$$ in a kind of sense...also just happens that the patent of their old drug has ran out too?
That's right!!
>Completely agree, I guess theres various examples of this type of marketing with other products in the market place as well beside drugs - that said when it comes to cashing in on peoples health and more importanly mental health, it is a shame.
Yes, there's a LOT of 'me too' drugs on the market ie. one company discovers a sucessful drugs and other companies synthesise *very similar* drugs which they hope will be successful.
Ibuprofen is a NSAID (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug). In the UK, there are currently 25 NSAIDs on the market - most of them don't have any special advanatages, they're 'me too' drugs, about 5 NSAIDs would be perfectly adequate. Drug companies put a lot of effort into developing 'me too' drugs because they're often very profitable. Most new drugs are not particularly innovative. Instead of developing 'new' NSAIDs, it would be a lot more valuable if drug companies spent more money on developing anti-inflammatory drugs with novel mechanisms of action.
In the UK, there are currently 11 ACE inhibitors on the market (the ACE inhibitors are a class of drug used to lower blood pressure). All ACE inhibitor are very similar and have an identical mechanism of action. We only really need about 2 ACE inhibitors. ACE inhibitors are very profitable though so drug companies keep on developing 'new' ones. Instead, they ought to be developing *new types* of drugs to lower BP.
Kind regards
~Ed
poster:ed_uk
thread:537977
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050803/msgs/538730.html