Medicines are regulated molecules sold as treatments
Medicines, known too as pharmaceutical drugs or medicinal products, are chemicals licensed to diagnose illness, heal it, manage it, or stop it starting. Pharmacotherapy leans on pharmacology for discovery and on pharmacy for safe delivery under heavy government rules.
A medication, also called a pharmaceutical drug or medicinal product, is a substance used to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent disease; Encyclopædia Britannica glosses it as something that treats illness or relieves pain. Pharmacotherapy depends on pharmacology for new discoveries and on pharmacy for safe handling. Dosage forms include tablets, capsules, liquids, creams, and patches, delivered by mouth, into a vein, or as ear and eye drops. A look-alike with no active ingredient, used in trials, is a placebo.
Control level is the key legal split. Prescription drugs need a licensed practitioner’s order because of side-effect risks, over-the-counter products can be bought freely, and some places add a third tier—behind-the-counter or pharmacy medicines, sold only by a pharmacist. Doctors may also prescribe off-label, for uses regulators never approved. Scientists further divide small-molecule drugs made by chemical synthesis from biologics such as vaccines, recombinant proteins, blood products, and gene or cell therapies, and the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical system is a widely used classification. The World Health Organization maintains an essential-medicines list.
Discovery is slow and costly. Early drugs came from traditional remedies or lucky accidents; later, libraries of compounds were screened on cells and whole organisms, and after the human genome was sequenced, on isolated protein targets. In 2010 each new molecular entity cost about US$1.8 billion to research and develop, and most candidates fail somewhere in Phase I, II, or III trials. Small firms often sell promising rights to larger companies that can afford those trials.
Use is widespread among older people. In a US survey of 2,377 adults averaging 71 years old in 2005–2006, 84% took at least one prescription drug; by 2010–2011 a similar group reported 88%, with dietary supplement use rising from 52% to 64%. The UK negotiates prices through its Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme.
Source: Medication
