Drug dossiers are documents outlining the pharmacological details of a drug or drug class. Documents like this are routinely used in the pharmaceutical industry and, in a more informal way, good pharmacologists will keep a mental or written dossier of drugs that they are interested in.
For this task you will need to choose a drug from the following list:
- Carvedilol
- Diazepam
- Escitalopram
- Omalizumab
- Risperidone
- Rofecoxib
- Zidovudine
Drug Dossier Questions:
- How selective is the drug for its primary target? What other targets does the drug interact with? How important is the degree of selectivity for the therapeutic utility of the drug?
- Are there physiological adaptations that contribute to, or modulate, the effects of this drug? How do these adaptations occur and what are their consequences?
- How is the drug normally administered? What is the rationale behind this choice of route of administration?
- What is the duration of action, plasma half-life, and normal dosing interval (frequency of administration) of this drug? How do these relate to one another?
- What is the volume of distribution of this drug? What does this tell you about its possible distribution behaviour?
- How is the drug eliminated? Discuss the metabolism and the mechanism(s) of excretion where appropriate.
