• Question: If you successfully created a drug to cure a cancer (for example lung cancer) what would be the first thing you would do with it?

    Asked by rach to Josh on 26 Jun 2015.
    • Photo: Josh Meyers

      Josh Meyers answered on 26 Jun 2015:

      I am at the stage of drug design.
      So first we test it in synthetic systems.
      Then we test it in cells in a dish.
      Then we test it in small animals.
      Then we test it in larger animals.
      Then it goes through 3 rounds (minimum) of trials in humans.
      Before being released to the market. And then it can cure lung cancer.

      This process is expensive and the chance of failure is very high at every stage.
      So you usually need to be working with a large pharmaceutical company in order to fund the drug trials!

      So if I invented a cure for lung cancer. It wouldn’t really belong to me at all. The wheels in motion are bigger than me!

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