Pharmaceutics market uniqueness

In this respect, the pharmaceutical market is like any other and doctors may and often do, say one thing and do another. In one respect, however, the pharmaceutical market is unique in that the end user of the product (the patient) for the most part leaves the choice of medicine to his physician. 

There are other unique facets of the pharmaceutical market. Pharmaceuticals are seen as lifesaving interventions, therefore, infinitely desirable, but with potentially serious side effects, leading to ethical dilemmas about their widespread use. This is particularly the case for antibiotics, where overuse leads to bacterial resistance. They can also be perceived as a tool for the unscrupulous... 

Compared to other new pharmaceuticals that enter society facing primarily marketing challenges, the new pharmacotherapy drugs are unique because of the highly politicized environment in which they will be introduced. As discussed above, the development of these drugs cannot be separated from the political environment. 

Stoichiometric hydrates are the most important solvates affecting the solubility of marketed pharmaceuticals. Hemihydrates, monohydrates, and dihydrates are the most common stoichiometric ratios of water incorporated into the crystalline lattice of drugs. Pfeiffer et al. (1970) have shown how different hydrates of cephalosporins could be isolated from solvent systems of varying water activity. Cephalexin has a monohydrate and a dihydrate form, which are stable under different relative humidity conditions. Cefazolin has a monohydrate, a sesquihydrate (1.5 moles water), and a pentahydrate form (Byrn and Pfeiffer, 1992). Jozwiakowski et al. (1996) have found that lamivudine can form a 0.2 hydrate, where only one of L ve lamivudine molecules in the crystal lattice is associated with a water molecule. Multiple solvates can be formed for the same drug Stephenson et al. (1994) have shown that dithromycin can crystallize in at least nine solvate forms, including a cyclohexane trisolvate and an acetonitrile trihydrate. In addition, Byrn et al. (1995) have noted that desolvated forms of some drugs have unique properties that differ from their nonsolvated counterparts. 

All the optically active terpenes mentioned in this chapter are commercially available in bulk (>kg) quantities and are fairly inexpensive. Although many of them are isolated from natural sources, they can also be produced economically by synthetic methods. Actually, two thirds of these monoterpenes sold in the market today are manufactured by synthetic or semi-synthetic routes. These optically active molecules usually possess simple carbocyclic rings with one or two stereo-genic centers and have modest functionality for convenient structural manipulations. These unique features render them attractive as chiral pool materials for synthesis of optically active fine chemicals or pharmaceuticals. Industrial applications of these terpenes as chiral auxiliaries, chiral synthons, and chiral reagents have increased significantly in recent years. The expansion of the chiral pool into terpenes will continue with the increase in complexity and chirality of new drug candidates in the research and development pipeline of pharmaceutical companies. 

The discovery, development, and registration of a pharmaceutical product is an expensive operation and represents a unique challenge for the chemical and pharmaceutical industry. In fact, of 10,000 active molecules specifically synthesized as potential therapeutics, only 100 will reach the human trial scale market. Further, only 10% will reach the market, and less than 20% of these would... 

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