This year we have heard a lot in the news about clinical trials as the world waits in the hopes of a successful vaccine against COVID-19 19. But clinical trials are an essential part of all drug testing for humans and play a part in coming up with new drugs that can help people with a wide range of illnesses, from Alzheimer’s to cancer.
Here are the basic stages of clinical trials, known as phases and what each stage entails…
Phase 1 – These are the first part of the process and will include a very small number of patients who will be very closely monitored. There are many types of phase 1 trials such as these adaptive phase 1 studies by Richmond Pharmacology. At this stage doctors want to make sure the treatment is safe and look at how the body responds to the treatment.
Phase 2 – Phase 2 will include a wider range of people and doctors will be looking at how effective the drug is as well as monitoring the patients for any side effects of the medication. At this stage doctors will be looking at how well the treatment is working.
Phase 3 – This stage will have a lot of people being studied and it is at this stage that doctors may want to compare how well the new drug that is being tested performs against other drugs that have been designed to treat the illness.
