Microdosing drugs with radioactive labels might be a way to see if new drugs are effective, reports the Economist. For this technique, drug developers borrow from anthropologists' use of accelerated mass spectrometers. Anthropologists use these mass specs to detect radioactive carbon in food, cloth, or other finds, but drug developers can label drugs with trace amounts of radioactive materials to see if and where the drug's components are absorbed in the body and whether or how long they persist.
Premium Trial: