Import Drugs Act

The Import Drugs Act—the first federal statute to ensure the quality of drugs—was passed when quinine used by American troops in Mexico to treat malaria was found to be adulterated... 

A revision of the Pure Food and Drug Act, the Federal Food Drug and Cosmetic Act, passed in 1938, added several provisions that impacted the food industry. Among those provisions were authorized factory inspections and the authority for court injunction to the previous seizure and prosecution actions (Janssen, 1992). Adulterated food was now defined as Sec. 402, A food shall be deemed to be adulterated if it consists in whole or in part of any filthy, putrid, or decomposed substance, or if it is otherwise unfit for food, or if it has been prepared, packed or held under unsanitary conditions whereby it may have become contaminated with filth, or whereby it may have been rendered injurious to health. The importance of the whereby clause is the concept that a food product need not be contaminated physically to be considered adulterated, but has been exposed to conditions that may have resulted in contamination of the food. This situation is vastly different from that which existed at the time the 1906 Food and Drug Act was passed. 

Peptidases encoded by many viruses play essential roles at various stages of viral replication, including the coordinated assembly and maturation of virons [7a]. Viral peptidases have become important drug targets in the treatment of viral infections. Of note are inhibitors of proteases of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), particularly HIV-1 protease (HIV-1 retropepsin, EC 3.4.23.16) and HIV-2 protease [47-50], Drugs in this class, which include indinavir, ritonavir, and saquinavir, are useful in the treatment of AIDS, especially when administered as a cocktail together with one of the drugs that act on the viral retrotranscriptase (e.g., didanosine, stavudine, and zidovudine (AZT)). 

Sulfa drugs were the first important antibacterials. Sulfa drugs act by inhibiting bacterial folic acid synthesis. 

The superfamily of seven-transmembrane-domain G-protein-coupled receptors is a diverse group of transmembrane proteins involved in signal transduction [1, 2]. GPCRs are of extraordinary importance for the pharmaceutical industry in that space nearly 40% of marketed drugs act through modulahon of the GPGR functions [3]. 

The eicosanoids are a group of signaling substances that arise from the C-20 fatty acid arachidonic add and therefore usually contain 20 C atoms (Greek eicosa = 20). As mediators, they influence a large number of physiological processes (see below). Eicosanoid metabolism is therefore an important drug target. As short-lived substances, eicosanoids only act in the vicinity of their site of synthesis (paracrine effect see p.372). 

Antimetabolites are enzyme inhibitors (see p. 96) that selectively block metabolic pathways. The majority of clinically important cytostatic drugs act on nucleotide biosynthesis. Many of these are modified nucleobases or nucleotides that competitively inhibit their target enzymes (see p. 96). Many are also incorporated into the DNA, thereby preventing replication. 

All the mechanisms we have encountered, which affect the way in which a drug is handled by the body, are important for one major reason - they all work together to determine how much drug is present at any given time at the point in the body where the drug acts - its effector site. Commonly this is at a receptor site in particular cells and organs, and the... 

Some adrenomimetic drugs act both directly and indirectly that is, they release some norepinephrine from storage sites and also directly activate tissue receptors. Such drugs are called mixed-action adrenomimetics. However, most therapeutically important adrenomimetic drugs in humans act either directly or indirectly. 

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