Final answer:
Drug development includes several stages such as discovery, chemical modification, toxicity testing, scalable production, and regulatory approval, and requires extensive testing to ensure safety and effectiveness.
Step-by-step explanation:
The term drug development encompasses the entire process by which a new drug or device is brought to market, including the stages of drug discovery, product development, pre-clinical research involving microorganisms and animals, and clinical trials with human subjects. Initially, chemists work on the synthesis or discovery of a drug, then modify its chemical structure, evaluate its toxicity, and design scalable production methods. Afterward, the drug must pass through regulatory approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States, which requires extensive experimental testing to ensure the drug's safety and efficacy.
This rigorous procedure involves a multidisciplinary team consisting of chemists, physicians, and scientists who perform a variety of tests from laboratory-based experiments to controlled human studies. The process is complex and can take several years to complete due to the detailed pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic evaluations that are necessary to understand how the drug behaves in biological systems and its impact on health.