Question

Why is it difficult to prepare anti-viral drugs as compared to anti-biotics?

Answer 1

It is difficult to make antiviral drugs because viruses do not possess any cellular machinery of their own to function. In fact, they use the machinery of the host to survive. Therefore, they have very few biochemical pathways of their own. Hence, it is difficult to find virus-specific targets. But antibiotics are used against the bacteria which posses the cellular machinery. Hence it is easy to target any cellular component or biochemical pathway to kill the bacteria. That is why there are very few anti-viral drugs but more number of antibiotics available.