Pleiotropy (drugs) can respond to them, because the endogenous ones are endocrine messengers. Pleiotropy (drugs) In pharmacology, pleiotropy includes all of a drug's actions other than those for which the agent was specifically developed. It may include adverse effects which are detrimental ones, but is often used to denote additional beneficial effects. For example, statins are HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors that primarily act by decreasing cholesterol synthesis, but which are believed to have other beneficial effects, including acting as antioxidants and stabilizing atherosclerotic plaques. Steroid drugs, such as prednisone and prednisolone, have pleiotropic effects, including systemic ones, for the same reason that endogenous
Drugs in the United States Drugs in the United States In the United States, the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act defined the word "drug" as an "article intended for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease in man or other animals" and those "(other than food) intended to affect the structure or any function of the body of man or other animals." Consistent with that definition, the U.S. separately defines narcotic drugs and controlled substances, which may include non-drugs, and explicitly excludes tobacco, caffeine and alcoholic beverages. The War on Drugs is a campaign of prohibition and foreign military aid