Quote:
Originally Posted by nenah  4 all u chemists out there. one of a common interview question is what makes a drug stable?
n e answers? would it have to do with its chemical structure? |
The chemical structure is the key
Its all a comprimise.
It needs to be chemically stable so that you can formulate it and for it to have a reasonable shelf life. You don't want it to be acid labile otherwise you have to buffer it or coat it that gastroresistant stuff. As well as that you don't want it to be digestable so that you have to stick to parenteral routes (injectable).
Metabolically, you don't want a lot of first pass metabolism, unless you have had to make a pro-drug. You don't really want a lot of liver metabolism because you get drug interactions. You want a half life so that dosing is once per day. You don't want it to be to lipophilic as it will accumulate.
However, if we suddenly found a cure for alzheimers or another debilitating condition that costs the NHS millions all the above would be of little concern as long as the stuff worked!