Research #3

I found this new website from Alliance corp. (http://www.allp.com/drug_dev.htm) a bit easier to understand than the FDA's website (http://www.fda.org) - partly because most of the information is put into one document, which makes it easier to follow. Also the vocabulary seems to be more understandable. The phases of drug development are as follows: Preclinical Testing, Investigational New Drug Application (IND), Clinical Trials Phase I, Clinical Trials Phase II, Clinical Trials Phase III, New Drug Application (NDA), Approval. Right now I still need to sort through the information on different websites I have collected, and figure out which pieces of information will go with each piece of my focus statement (which is about drug development, how it affects people today, and how it affects the pharmaceuitcal industry).

Research #2

Mostly for my research the past class periods, I have been reading and browsing through FDA website. I think this is good because that website is the most reliable and I already know I can use any information I find on it. I think it is also good for me to be looking at the information before using it for my research, so I can sort out the good and bad. So far just reading on this website has consumed most of my researching time.

Letter of Intent

Today I have mostly been revising my letter of intent. After I finished, though, I looked up on the FDA's website the "New Drug Development Process". I think this is going to help me ALOT on my research paper- especially since I already know for sure the FDA is as credible source!

My Mentor

My mentor for this project is my aunt, Andrea DelaBruere. She works for the company Phizer in selling pharmaceuticals. Choosing her was easy, because of my field of interest, she was a perfect candidate. When I met with her last week, we discussed my focus question, a possible product, and mostly she described to be what the business is all about. I learned so much just from an hr and a half at lunch with her. She told me about how mostly selling drugs is about gaining relationships with the doctors, because if you don't have good relationships with them, they won't sell your drug. She told me that each salesperson has only a few drugs that they try to sell, because of all the information you have to know about them. They go for weeks at a time on training to know every little fact there is to know about their drug, which makes science a good background to have to understand everything. One of the downfalls about pharmaceuticals is that alot of people automatically blow you off when meeting you. They just think "oh another rep" and think of ways to get rid of them. That can be challenging when meeting this people on regular basis. She also told me that the actual process of drug development can be so intriguing, and if people actually knew what went on they wouldnt be so standoffish to the salesman.