Drug class

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A drug class is a group of medications and other compounds that share similar chemical structures, act through the same mechanism of action (i.e., binding to the same biological target), have similar modes of action, and/or are used to treat similar diseases.^[1][2] The FDA has long worked to classify and license new medications. Its Drug Evaluation and Research Center categorizes these medications based on both their chemical and therapeutic classes.^[3]

In several major drug classification systems, these four types of classifications are organized into a hierarchy.^[4] For example, fibrates are a chemical class of drugs (amphipathic carboxylic acids) that share the same mechanism of action (PPAR agonist), the same mode of action (reducing blood triglyceride levels), and are used to prevent and treat the same disease (atherosclerosis). However, not all PPAR agonists are fibrates, not all triglyceride-lowering agents are PPAR agonists, and not all drugs used to treat atherosclerosis lower triglycerides. A drug class is typically defined by a prototype drug, the most important, and typically the first developed drug within the class, used as a reference for comparison.