What difference does pharmacology make?

Pharmacologists help millions of people across the world. The more we learn about health and disease, the more pharmacologists need to find new, better and safer treatments. ​

Calpol is a medicine you might have heard of. You might even have taken it to feel better. Calpol is an anti-inflammatory drug, which means it helps to calm down the body’s immune system after an injury or infection. Like most medicines, anti-inflammatory drugs were first made for adults to take. It is then up to pharmacologists to make some versions (called formulations) of the medicine so that children can take them too. ​

​Have you heard of drugs called beta-blockers? They are one of the most important heart medicines of all time. They were developed by a famous pharmacologist called Sir James Black who was fascinated by an important hormone in the body called adrenaline. His research into that hormone and its effects on the heart gave him the idea to develop beta-blockers.

Today, millions of people across the world take beta-blockers to help their heart keep ticking over normally.