新药的发现磺胺药物的问世揭开了合成药的昌盛时代。随着医疗上的要求以及有关学科的进展,近年来合成药物发展得更快,平均每年有数十种新药投入医疗应用,其中有些从化学结构上或药理机制上说来还是崭新的类型。一方面是新药不断地代替了老药的应用;另一方面,有些新药虽有很好的效用,但却不可避免地带来了一些新问题。新型药物的发现推动了其机制的研究,而机制的阐明又为寻找相似新药铺平了道路。这样,新药的不断涌现,不但革新了疾病的防治方法,并且也带动了药物科学的蓬勃发展。在早年,传染病是人类死亡的首要原 The discovery of new drugs The advent of sulfa drugs opened the prosperous era of synthetic drugs. With the medical demands and progress of relevant disciplines, synthetic drugs have developed even faster in recent years. On average, dozens of new drugs are put into medical applications on an annual basis, some of which are still new in chemical structure or pharmacological mechanism. On the one hand, new drugs continue to replace the application of old drugs. On the other hand, some new drugs, although very effective, inevitably bring about some new problems. The discovery of new drugs has promoted the study of its mechanism, and the elucidation of the mechanism has paved the way for finding similar new drugs. In this way, the continuous emergence of new drugs not only renovated the disease prevention and control methods, but also led to the vigorous development of pharmaceutical science. In the early years, infectious diseases were the primary cause of human death