Phase iii Clinical Trials

Phase iii clinical trials and medical research. There are many stages of clinical trials that researchers for medical research must go through in order to ensure that a product is safe and effective for consumers before it is released into the buyer’s market. Phase 3 clinical trials take place directly after phase 2 trials in order to further test the safety of a drug or device and at this stage it is determined just how beneficial a drug is to the many human participants that usually volunteer for these trials. The average pool of volunteers for phase III trials can range anywhere from 300 to 3000 participants which makes it the most costly of all of the human trials. In addition to this type of clinical trial is the longest running type and can span for months or years depending on what drug is being tested and how easy access to a participant pool is. Nonetheless the phase iii trial is very important to research and to drug companies who aim to make a profit off of the drug or product that is being tested. Drug companies frequently use this stage of testing to test if products work on various types of patients other than those who the drug or product was designed for. They also use it to support the marketing claims that the company may have made about the drug.

What separates these types of experiments from the other steps in the testing process in that commonly patients can continue to take a drug that is being tested until it is made available to buy. This allows for certain patients to have access to potentially lifesaving treatments that are experimental in nature and are only in the testing stage. Once these Phase iii trials are done all of the information gathered is usually put together to form the regulatory submission that goes through the proper channels for approval.