UNAIR NEWS聽– Prof.聽Dr.聽Suko Hardjono, MS, Apt., the 22nd Professor of Faculty of Pharmacy 东京热, on Thursday, December 28, presented a scientific oration entitled “The Role of Medicinal Chemistry in the Development of Anticancer Drugs”.聽In pharmaceutical science, medicinal chemistry as a branch of chemistry and biology, explains the mechanism of drug action.
Medicinal chemistry works for drug development, creating new drugs with better activity, minimal side effects, more directed work, and longer effectiveness.
The focus of Prof. Suko in this study is for the development of anti-cancer drugs.聽Because, at the moment, cancer is the fifth cause of death in Indonesia.聽In developing anti-cancer drugs, Prof. Suko conducts several steps.聽First, finding the parent compound by selecting the target of the disease and its medicine and then developing the drug by confirming the activity-structure relationship, confirming the pharmacofor group, improving the pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics.聽Only then the drug can be developed.
“The development of drugs is done by patenting the drug compounds obtained, conducting preclinical testing, designing manufacturing processes, conducting clinical trials, registering and marketing new drugs,” said Prof.聽Suko.
The 21st active professor of Faculty of Pharmacy, with researchers at the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, FF UNAIR has been developing drugs through the modification of the parent compound structure.聽Drugs developed are anti-cancer drugs as cancer is one of the main causes of death.
“Indonesia can improve the role of medical chemistry in drug development because it has many advantages.聽One of them is the聽 abundance of active compounds or parent compounds can be obtained from nature, semi synthesis and synthesis, “added Prof.聽Suko.
Based on Prof. Suko’s experience聽 in the field, there are setbacks found in Indonesia related to the development of medicinal chemistry.聽Therefore, Prof.聽Suko proposed some ideas.聽First, medicinal chemistry should be taught and instilled in pharmacy higher education.聽Second, to support the research of drug development in universities, excellent synthesis equipments are needed, the latest聽in silico聽program聽and sophisticated chemical analysis equipment.
Third, Prof.聽Suko added that the government should simplify licensing and lower the costs to obtain the necessary chemicals.聽Finally, the government should strengthen the domestic chemical industry, to reduce dependence on imports.
“I hope we will have more advanced drug development research.聽And medicinal chemistry lessons will develop well.聽This is a new science.聽It should be taught to the next generation, “said Prof.聽Suko.聽(*)
Author: Binti Q. Masruroh
Editor: Nuri Hermawan
