"Now we can see whether particular drugs can help or develop ways of training astronauts to cope with the problem."

But drug companies have been reluctant to use the technology, in part because they were unsure how readily regulators would approve drugs developed that way.

Conversely, drugs developed for the brain could have uses in the gut.

But other treatments, like a drug developed to interrupt some step in the disease process, could come much faster.

The review panel meets for an entire day once a month to make decisions on which drugs to pursue and how to develop them.

If you keep on taking Tamoxifen beyond five years, the drug can develop a way to start acting like estrogen rather than blocking it.

Even drugs developed for medical use can be abused.

Advantages of Accord At present, pharmaceutical companies often do not know what other drugs their competitors are developing.

A drug developed for sleeping sickness, suramin, was recently found to do the trick.

Nor do all drugs developed in this manner come from plants.