Which statement describes synthetic drugs?

• A. Naturally occurring compounds used as-is
• B. Lab generated
• C. Chemically modified natural products
• D. Derived from minerals

Answer: (B)

Synthetic drugs are compounds made in the laboratory through chemical synthesis, created from scratch in controlled processes to achieve specific pharmacological properties. That makes lab generation the best description.

Naturally occurring compounds used as-is are natural products, not synthetic. Chemically modified natural products describe semi-synthetic drugs—they start with a natural product and are altered in the lab, which is a related but not fully synthetic approach. Derived from minerals would point to inorganic sources, which is not the typical context for describing synthetic organic drugs.