How Clinical Trials Influence Medical Innovation

Clinical trials are hugely important in the world of medicine and medical innovation. Through the use of clinical trials, so many treatments and even cures have been able to be discovered. Take the disease of hepatitis C for example. Years ago, hepatitis C was a life long condition that needed to be managed. It could even lead to the need for a liver transplant over time, and even death if an organ donor was not found in time. Through the use of clinical research, however, Hepatitis C can be completely eradicated in around ninety five percent of all patients diagnosed with the condition. All that needs to be followed is a drug treatment course that last no longer than twelve total weeks – and in some cases, is finished in as few as eight weeks.

And this is only one example of medical innovation as a result of a clinical trial. Clinical research trials have also had good results for many cancer patients, leading to prolonged lives and higher qualities of life. Factoring out cancer treatments such as chemotherapy and radiation, the success of cancer treatments in a clinical trial setting is typically around twenty percent. Without such trial treatments, however, the success of treatment drops to under five percent.

The success of clinical trials in the world of medical innovation are directly linked to the funding that they receive to conduct thorough research and extensive trials. From epilepsy studies to diabetes clinical trials, many clinical research trials are primarily funded by pharmaceutical companies. In fact, around half of all leading research and development firms in the entire world are owned and run by a pharmaceutical company. As the pharmaceutical industry on a global scale is set to exceed nearly one and a half trillion dollars of yearly worth by the end of 2020, it is clear that funding from the pharmaceutical industry is hugely beneficial and even instrumental for the furthering of medical innovation.

Clinical trials are typically conducted in four separate phases as follows: the phase one clinical trial, the phase 2 clinical trial, the phase 3 clinical trial, and the phase 4 clinical trial. Each phase of the clinical trial, from a phase 2 clinical trial to a phase 4 clinical trial, is important and key to the implementation of treatment in real life. Each phase of the trial also has a specific purpose and goal. While a phase one clinical trial is focused on testing the safety of a drug or a treatment for use in humans, a phase 2 clinical trial is concerned with testing the drug or treatment’s overall effectiveness once in use. The phase 2 clinical trial is often considerably longer than phase 1 drug trials. A phase 2 clinical trial can even last for years – as many as two – before completion of the phase. Phase three of a research trial is focused on testing the safety and effectiveness of a treatment or drug on a much larger scale and the concluding phase, a phase four clinical trial, focuses on any issues of long term safety that may have come up.

In the United States and truly everywhere around the world, medical innovation is hugely important. Medical innovation is often achieved through the advancement of clinical trials. These clinical trials, which are often funded by major pharmaceutical companies, help to push medical research further, conducting medical testing in phases, from the phase one to the phase 2 clinical trial, to conclude phases three and four. Clinical trials are hugely important and without clinical trials many easily treatable diseases would quickly become lifelong ailments or even terminal conditions.