Design The Humanitarian Approach

In traditional medicine there are two major therapeutic approaches to the treatment of human disease surgical and medical. Surgical procedures are labour intensive and time demanding they help a limited number of individuals, one at a time, mostly in rich or developed nations. Medical therapy, on the other hand, is based on drug molecules and thus has the capacity to positively influence the lives of more people, often over a shorter time frame. Medical therapeutics offer hope in both developed and developing parts of the world—hopefully to rich and poor alike. 

A medicinal chemist can help thousands or even millions of people with a carefully designed new drug molecule. The practice of science is a very human activity medicinal chemistry is a humanitarian science. 

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