Pleiotropy (drugs) 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 steroid hormones do too: cells throughout the body have receptors that
Consumer import of prescription drugs a higher price in a different market. Businesses, manufacturers and drug retailers wish to control the supply of pharmaceuticals in their own marketplace. As such, if low-cost drugs entered a market from other lower-cost territories, what might develop is pure price-based selling. The TRIPS agreement is an example of a World Trade Organization treaty which regulates how drugs can be traded in the international marketplace. Some developing countries might receive access to lower-cost drugs through compulsory licenses. Compulsory licenses affect markets outside the country in which they are issued. Drugs which are legal in one place may not be legal