{"id":4046,"date":"2026-02-25T08:25:44","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T07:25:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iph-multisite.berta-bewegt.ch\/?page_id=4046"},"modified":"2026-02-25T08:25:44","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T07:25:44","slug":"forschungsfragen-zu-beginn","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.interpharma.ch\/en\/themen\/fuhrend-in-forschung-entwicklung\/der-weg-eines-medikaments\/forschungsfragen-zu-beginn\/","title":{"rendered":"The first steps towards a new medicinal product"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Many\nquestions have to be answered before a pharmaceutical research project can be\nlaunched. For which diseases is there an urgent need for new medicines? Are\nthere any new findings about the causes of a disease? Can the side effects of\nexisting medicines be reduced?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If\nthe answers to most of these questions are positive, the long and risk-fraught\nprocess of developing a new medicinal product begins. It starts with the\nidentification of a target. This is a point of attack within the body that\neither triggers or has a fundamental effect on the disease process. The new\nmedicine needs to act on this point of attack in such a way that the disease\nsubsides or is relieved. These targets are usually enzymes or receptors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Lock and key principle<\/strong><strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Once\na suitable target has been identified, the next step is to identify a suitable\nactive substance. Large-scale testing using automated processes (known as\nhigh-throughput screening) exposes the target to up to 200,000 different\ncompounds every day and tests these combinations for interactions. An\ninteraction occurs when a substance either inhibits or activates the target.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A\ngood analogy here is a lock and key. The target being studied represents the\nlock. Only a few of the many active substances \u2013 or \u201ckeys\u201d \u2013 being tested\nagainst the target will actually be a good fit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Substances\nthat react with the target are called hits and subsequently undergo further\ntesting to establish their potency. On average, out of 5,000 to 10,000 hits\ntested, only 20 are suitable for further investigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>From hit to active\nsubstance<\/strong><strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Since\nthe hits, i.e. the compounds that have reacted with the target, are not\nsuitable for use as active substances in their original form, they are\nchemically modified to give them the properties they need as a new pharmaceutically\nactive substance. Continuing the lock and key analogy, we could say that the\nkey fitted into the lock before but was very difficult to turn, so the desired\neffect was either too weak or didn\u2019t happen at all. The key now needs to be\nmodified so that the lock can be opened easily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>An\nactive substance needs to fulfil a number of requirements before it can act as\nthe right key for the lock. For example, if possible it should not affect any\nprocesses in the body other than the target for which it is being developed.\nThis development can take several years while researchers add or remove\nindividual parts of the active substance in order to further optimise its\nproperties. Each modification is subsequently tested. If the substance is\nsatisfactory after a few years and several hundred changes, the pharmaceutical\ncompany applies for it to be patented. This ensures that no company other than\nthe pharmaceutical company that developed this new active substance can use it\nto manufacture medicines. The patent application marks the start of the 20-year\nperiod of patent protection, well before it is clear whether the active\nsubstance will ever reach the market as a medicinal product.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Many questions have to be answered before a pharmaceutical research project can be launched. For which diseases is there an urgent need for new medicines? Are there any new findings about the causes of a disease? Can the side effects of existing medicines be reduced? If the answers to most of these questions are positive, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":4288,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-templates\/unterthema.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-4046","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.2 (Yoast SEO v27.2) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The first steps towards a new medicinal product - Interpharma<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.interpharma.ch\/en\/themen\/fuhrend-in-forschung-entwicklung\/der-weg-eines-medikaments\/forschungsfragen-zu-beginn\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The first steps towards a new medicinal product\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Many questions have to be answered before a pharmaceutical research project can be launched. 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