Clinical trials

Clinical trials are prospective biomedical or behavioral research studies on human subjects that are designed to answer specific questions about biomedical or behavioral interventions (novel vaccines, drugs, treatments, functional foods, dietary supplements, devices or new ways of using known interventions), generating safety and efficacy data. They are conducted only after satisfactory information has been gathered that satisfies health authority/ethics committee approval in the country where approval of the therapy is sought. Depending on product type and development stage, investigators initially enroll volunteers and/or patients into small pilot studies, and subsequently conduct progressively larger scale comparative studies. As positive safety and efficacy data are gathered, the number of patients typically increases. Clinical trials can vary in size, and can involve a single research entity in one country or multiple entities in multiple countries. A full series of trials may cost hundreds of millions of dollars. The burden of paying is usually borne by the sponsor, which may be a governmental organization or a pharmaceutical, biotechnology or medical device company. When the required support exceeds the sponsor’s capacity, the trial may be managed by an outsourced partner, such as a contract research organization or an academic clinical trials unit.