Have you ever wondered how new medications, treatments, or devices come to be? The answer lies in a tedious process called clinical trials. These trials involve testing the latest drugs, treatments, and even medical devices on volunteers to assess their safety and effectiveness. Clinical trials are conducted all around the world, and they are not done in a single day. But it takes a lot of time and has to be completed in phases. If you want to know more, then you are at the right place. In this post, we are going to share all of the phases in the clinical trials.
First Phase
In Phase 1, scientists check if a new treatment is safe. They usually test it on a small group of healthy people, maybe 20 to 100. These volunteers get the treatment, and doctors watch them closely to see if there are any side effects. The main goal here is to make sure the treatment won’t harm people. Phase 1 can take a few months, and if everything looks okay, the trial moves forward.
Regular checkup of the participants is the main thing about this phase. The doctors keep a keen eye on the participants for any of the changes that happen in their bodies after providing them the treatment or the medicine. In short, this phase is all about safety and efficacy.
#2 – Second Phase
The Second Phase is all about figuring out if the treatment actually works and finding out the effective dosage. In this phase, the researchers invite a bigger group of people to have the best understanding of the medicine’s efficacy and the effective dose. In this phase, the researchers will understand if the medicine works or not and can adjust the composition as per their needs.
The doctors keep a close eye on how participants respond to the treatment. They track things like whether symptoms get better and if the treatment helps with the illness. While they still watch for side effects, the main focus here is on seeing if the treatment is effective. If the results are positive, then the researchers can move to the next phase.
#3 – Third Phase
This most significant and most crucial phase typically involves hundreds or even thousands of volunteers across different locations. This phase requires the researchers to test the medicine in a broader range of people. This helps them to understand the effect of the medicine on people of different ages, demographics, races, and others. The entire phase requires the researchers to collect the data and then send it to the regulatory bodies for final approval. Once approved, the medicine or treatment regime can be made available to the public.
Final Words
As clinical trials impact humanity by providing working medicines for controlling and eradicating a disease or a medical condition, they have to be passed through various stages. This systematic approach helps researchers to get accurate data and test the safety and efficacy of the medicine.