According to Encyclopædia Britannica, medication is "a substance used in treating a disease or relieving pain". Medication is a medicine or a chemical compound used to treat or cure illness. Controversies have arisen over drug pricing and disposal of used drugs. Governments generally regulate what drugs can be marketed, how drugs are marketed, and in some jurisdictions, drug pricing. As a result of this complex path from discovery to commercialization, partnering has become a standard practice for advancing drug candidates through development pipelines. The World Health Organization keeps a list of essential medicines.ĭrug discovery and drug development are complex and expensive endeavors undertaken by pharmaceutical companies, academic scientists, and governments. An elaborate and widely used classification system is the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical Classification System. Other ways to classify medicines are by mode of action, route of administration, biological system affected, or therapeutic effects.
Another key distinction is between traditional small molecule drugs, usually derived from chemical synthesis, and biopharmaceuticals, which include recombinant proteins, vaccines, blood products used therapeutically (such as IVIG), gene therapy, monoclonal antibodies and cell therapy (for instance, stem cell therapies). One of the key divisions is by level of control, which distinguishes prescription drugs (those that a pharmacist dispenses only on the order of a physician, physician assistant, or qualified nurse) from over-the-counter drugs (those that consumers can order for themselves). Drug therapy ( pharmacotherapy) is an important part of the medical field and relies on the science of pharmacology for continual advancement and on pharmacy for appropriate management.ĭrugs are classified in multiple ways. A medication is a prescription drug used to treat a disease.Ī medication (also called medicament, medicine, pharmaceutical drug, medicinal drug or simply drug) is a drug used to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent disease.
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