From a clinical trial phase 1 to a phase 3 drug trial, clinical trials as funded by pharmaceutical companies and the like are hugely important not only here in the United States but in many other places all throughout the world as well. After all, the clinical trial phase 1 and all the phases that come after it, from the phase 2 clinical trial to the phase 3 clinical trial are conducted with the purpose of pushing medical advancement. And when you push medical advancement, the lives of many varied people become better and more hopeful here in the United States as well as all throughout the world – or at least in many different places of it.
This can be seen clearly in a many different cases, such as in the case of Hepatitis C. Back before clinical trials were conducted surrounding Hepatitis C, starting with the clinical trial phase 1, Hepatitis C was, once contracted, a life long illness. And unless it was incredibly carefully managed and even sometimes in spite of that, Hepatitis C wreaked havoc on the infected person’s liver over the course of time. Many people who had Hepatitis C often found that they were eventually in need of a liver transplant – and if a liver donor could not be found in time, Hepatitis C could all too easily become a death sentence.
Nowadays, this is far from the case. While contracting a disease like Hepatitis C is certainly far from pleasant, it is no longer as serious as it once was. Thanks to clinical research studies that began with a clinical trial phase 1, Hepatitis C can now be treated with a course of medication. This medication can take as little as eight weeks, a mere two months, to be successful and it will take no more than three months, a course of twelve weeks, at the most. For the vast majority of people who have been infected with Hepatitis C – up to ninety five percent to ninety six percent of them – this course of medication is a cure for Hepatitis C once and for all.
Clinical drug trials that start with a clinical trial phase 1 have also made considerable and important headway when it comes to cancer research as well. Though treatments like chemotherapy and radiation therapy are still incredibly important in curing cancer or even just sending it into remission for a period of time, clinical trials have already proven to be more than fifteen percent effective than cancer drugs alone. When used in conjunction with treatments like chemotherapy and radiation therapy, clinical trials have extended the lives of many cancer patients, if only by just a short period of time.
Clinical trials tend to work in the same way every time, no matter what it is that they are studying and testing. The clinical trial phase 1 comes first, and the clinical trial phase 1 focuses primarily on the safety of the drug or other such treatment for use in human people instead of in animals.
After the clinical trial phase 1 comes the phase 2 clinical trial. This phase of studying a drug or a treatment is a long one, a phase that can last up to two years. In the vast majority of clinical trials, the second phase is also much larger than the clinical trial phase 1. This phase focuses in on the effectiveness of the drug once the safety of the drug has already been established (as should have been done in the clinical trial phase 1).
The phase 3 clinical trial comes next, focusing in on both safety as well as effectiveness. However, this phase of any given clinical trial focuses on both of these components on a larger scale, larger even than the second phase of the clinical trial. And finally, the fourth phase of the clinical trial comes around, with a focus on long term use.
There is no doubt about it that clinical drug trials are important ways to explore more in the medical field, to achieve breakthroughs.
