Past approaches to discovering new medicines

Abstract

Se hace una breve historia de las principales aproximaciones al descubrimiento de nuevos fármacos. Se describen cuatro de las principales aproximaciones: productos naturales, uso de prototipos existentes, screening farmacológico y transmisores fisiológicos.

A brief account is given of the main approaches to new drug discovery which have been taken during the twentieth century. Four main sources for new drugs are described and each of these is discussed in turn; they are: natural products, existing drugs, screens and physiological transmitters.