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Drug discovery has been taking place as far back as humans have been alive. When something goes wrong, our natural human instinct is to fix it, right? Early drug discovery simply involved the use of natural resources that surround us and �lucky� discoveries. Today, advanced drug discovery involves creating new drugs by combining natural resources, targeting what we already know, adding new research and technology, and experimentation.
Cancer drug discovery at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) has been active for over 50 years now. According to the NCI website, about half of all cancer drugs used by patients today were developed by NCI and its associates. Traditional techniques of drug discovery have been modified and improved at NCI using the most cutting-edge processes. Of the more than 400,000 developed cancer drugs, 80,000 have been recently screened.
Despite all the lives that have benefited from the cancer drug discovery industry, developing and getting the drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is a long and costly process. Some believe that the time and cost of cancer drug discovery is too much, especially when a lot of cancer drugs cannot be approved due to various complications. However, what some may see as just a game of guess and check, scientists see as beneficial and growing.
Cancer drug discovery is definitely still under development and will continue as long as cancer exists. In the next few years, scientists hope to find quicker and less expensive methods. For those who are affected by cancer, this means new and improved cancer drugs to help them with their disease faster.
