How do drug trials work?

We hear about new ideas in medicine all the time, but why do we have to wait so long to get a treatment?

It can take years or even decades to get a treatment through clinical trials and it can be very frustrating to wait for that research to happen, but there are good reasons for research to take so long.

After all, we want to know that there is good evidence that the medicine we take will be effective, and be pretty sure that no unexpected side effects will crop up. That’s why medicines have to jump through so many hoops before we can get our hands on them.

From lab to trial

Before a new drug can be approved it must be proven to be safe and effective. Before trials start, drugs must be tested in the lab. If they pass this test they can move into clinical trials, where studies are designed to test a particular disease, disease stage and symptom. The drug is tested against any existing treatments, or against dummy pills (placebo). This weighs up the risks and benefits of the drug.

A fair trial

It is very important that trials are fair, which is why people in a control group often take a dummy pill. Participants are randomly allocated to decide which treatment group they will be in. They are often ‘blinded’ too, which means they don’t know whether they’re receiving the real treatment or not. In a ‘double blind’ trial, the researchers don’t know who is receiving the real treatment either. This is to eliminate bias as much as possible.

Collecting the evidence

For a drug to be approved it must go through strict phases of testing, to obtain enough evidence that shows it is safe and effective in large groups of people. The large numbers mean it is easier to spot unusual side effects. The number of drugs that make it from the lab into human trials is as little as 1 in a 1000. Even fewer go on to be licensed. So even when a drug shows promise at an early stage, there’s still a long way to go.

For the full lowdown on how drug trials work, Dr Pixie from Channel 4 explains it all: 

.

Thank you Dr Pixie for clearing all that up!

For more information, we explain what makes good research  and more about the trial process, with a timeline of the steps involved from laboratory science to drug licensing.