• start by reading the product label and summarize relevant information. • describe the chemical compound and properties that may be relevant to its delivery or mechanism of action. is it a small molecule (chemical) compound? is it a protein? is it something else? • describe the clinical indications for the drug (what diseases does it treat.) • describe the molecular target and/or the pathway of action for the drug and what the drug does to the target. • describe the biological effects of the drug and how it impacts a disease. • describe key issues of adme (absorption, distribution, metabolism, and elimination) that may be relevant. how is it administered (orally, injection, iv, topical) and why? where does it work in the body? how does it get there? • does the drug work? how do you know? • describe the side effects of the drug. are they related to the effect of the drug? are they idiosyncratic (i.e. unexplained)? are they related to drug interactions? • are there other drugs with similar, complementary, competing effects? • you may address aspects of the marketing, competition, regulation, regulatory history, or marketing/promotion of the drug that you find interesting. try to put these issues in the context of drug’s biology. for example, what biological effects are described in promotional materials? what aspects of the drug affect its regulation? what makes the drug expensive or inexpensive? • you should write clearly, use a technical vocabulary, and demonstrate that you understand this vocabulary by explaining technical terms or providing definitions • the text should be thoroughly referenced and should include web sites and articles from the technical, scientific literature useful resources: an fda site with the history of fda actions including letters and the approved drug label: http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cder/drugsatfda/ the physicians desk reference is a standard reference for products on the market. the online version had information derived primarily from the product label as well as background information on certain diseases. http://www.pdrhealth.com a site on drugs maintained by the national library of medicine http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginformation.html the merck manual is a reliable reference on diseases and treatment http://www.merck.com/mmhe/index.html pubmed is the searchable database of the medical literature. abstracts of most articles are available on line. many articles are available in full text form either directly through pubmed or through the baker library online resources. you should know how to use this resource. another useful search engine for the scientific literature is scholar.google.com. there are many e-health sites on the web. among those that may be useful are: http://www.mayoclinic.com/, http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/hp.asp, drug interactions frequently result when two different drugs must be eliminated from the body through degradation by the same metabolic enzyme. these enzymes, called p450s or cyps are found in the liver and include cyp1a2, cyp2b6, cyp2c8, cyp2c19, cyp2c9, cyp2d6, cyp2e1, and cyp3a4,5,7. if two chemical compounds (e.g. drugs, nutrients, vitamins, etc.) are taken at the same time which must compete for the same elimination pathway, elimination of the drug from the body will be slower, and the effect of the drug (both therapeutic and potentially toxic) will be greater. if two drugs are taken together, and one inhibitors or stimulates the elimination pathway, it will also affect the effect or toxicity of a drug. a table of such potential drug interactions is available at: http://medicine.iupui.edu/flockhart/table.htm. This table lists drugs that compete for elimination by each pathway (substrates), drugs that inhibit the function of each pathways (inhibitors), and drugs that stimulate the function of each pathway (induction). Compare the drug interactions listed on the product label with the drugs in each class. Note also the effects of grapefruit juice, broccoli, etc… Good schematics of biological pathways are sometimes hard to find. Two good sites are http://www.biocarta.com/ which is focused primarily on cellular/molecular processes and http://www.expasy.org/tools/pathways/ which also has biochemical/metabolic pathways. The latter site has a search engine. A standard textbook of pharmacology is Goodman and Gillman, The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics – but there are many others.