designer medicines

[GoodTaste]

The Invulnerable Cell
Biologists are building an organism that can shrug off any virus on the planet. Impervious human cells may be next
A recoded cell could open up a new world of designer medicines.

“That would be a game changer,” Ostrov says.


Source: Scientific American

I understand designer medicines as medicines that are designed by designers. Am I on the right track?

 

[emsr2d2]

They're designed by scientists/pharmacists. They're personal medicines, specifically designed to work for one patient.

 

[jutfrank]

They're designed by scientists/pharmacists.

Not pharmacists (people who work in a pharmacy) but pharmacogeneticists. They look at the person's genome and tailor the drug accordingly.

 

[emsr2d2]

I did mean to write "pharmacologists", although I now realise that even that wouldn't have been the correct term.

 

[probus]

In my opinion they are called "designer" not because they are designed by a designer, a pharmacologist or whatever, but because they are tailored to a specific patient's specific ailment.