Para-pill-tamol!

“I have a headache”, my grandmother said.

“Why?” I asked.

“Maybe I didn’t get enough sleep, or maybe I’ve been working too much”, she replied.

“Give me a paracetamol”, she called out to my mother. My mother reached for a blue strip of tablets, popped one out, and handed it to her.

She swallowed it with a generous gulp of water, lay down, and, as expected, began recounting the many hardships she had endured long before I was born.

“What tablet was that, Ma?” I asked.

“Paracetamol. It helps with body pain and headaches”, she said.

“Who discovered it?”

“I don’t know, probably doctors or scientists”.

“How did they discover it?”

“I don’t know”, she shrugged.
It took me almost ten years to find the answer.

So, how are drugs discovered? Did someone just stumble upon them in a lab or perhaps a farm? And how long does it take to discover and bring a drug to life? Days or months?

To understand this, let’s look at one familiar drug and understand the work that goes into its discovery

Many drugs were not originally discovered for the purpose they serve today. Paracetamol is one such example.

 In the late 1800s, a patient with intestinal worms was administered Acetanilide as a pharmacy mix-up when the actual medicine was Naphthalene (the usual treatment during those days for intestinal worms). Unexpectedly, the patient’s fever subsided.

The usage of acetanilide was effective, but it came with a serious drawback – it was toxic. Excessive consumption of acetanilide causes Methemoglobinemia, a condition where the methemoglobin levels in blood prevent red blood cells from releasing oxygen.

Naturally, researchers began searching for safer alternatives. During this time, paracetamol had already been synthesised in the lab. However, it was largely overlooked, partly because acetanilide itself was toxic.

It was later discovered that when the body processes acetanilide, it actually converts a part of it to paracetamol. So paracetamol was the drug that was actually doing the work.

During the late 1950’s, scientists discovered the truth about acetanilide and paracetamol, the latter being recognised as safer and more effective. It was widely marketed in the US as Tylenol, later adopted and sold worldwide under different names.

So, that’s a small story of how paracetamol was discovered – not through a single breakthrough moment but through a series of accidents, observations and corrections.

How does drug discovery work now in modern days?

Well, I waited almost 10 years to learn this in college. Maybe you guys could wait until my next yap?