The Role of Investigative Toxicology and Safety Biomarkers in Drug Safety Evaluations

• By: Admin
• Date: December 08, 2009

Toxicology, Pharmacovigilance, Drug Safety Evaluation - Explained

Toxicology is the study of adverse effects of chemicals on living organisms. It is the study of symptoms, treatments and detection of poisoning. The relationship between the dosage and its effect on the exposed organism is of high importance in toxicology. Investigative toxicology focus on making drugs safe for human use. It involves a series of clinical tests on lab specimens (mostly rats) to access the risk of any toxic reactions before human trials. Drug safety evaluation or more so known as Pharmacovigilance is the science relating to the detection, assessment, understanding and prevention of adverse effects of medications, biological products, herbalism and traditional medicines, particularly long term and short term side effects. The aim is to collect new information on hazards of medicines and to prevent harm to patients.