From the phase 1 clinical trial to the phase 3 clinical trail, clinical trials and clinical research studies are incredibly important not only here in the United States but in many other places all around the world. There are many different kinds of clinical trials, ranging from paid depression studies to epilepsy studies, and clinical trials, from the phase 1 clinical trial to the phase 3 clinical trial, have been instrumental in both promoting and bringing about medical advancement here in the United States.
This perhaps cannot be seen more clearly than in the case of the disease of Hepatitis C. Once upon a time, contracting Hepatitis C meant that you’d have a life long condition to manage, one that was even likely to lead to liver failure and the need for a donor liver. For those who required a liver transplant because of Hepatitis C, the disease could even become a death sentence if a donor was not found quickly enough. Now, however, this has been changed dramatically, and up to ninety five percent of all people who contract Hepatitis C will only need to take an eight to twelve week course of medication before being completely cured. While this treatment is not yet one hundred percent effective, it sure beats the alternative and the way that things used to be. Nowadays, Hepatitis C is incredibly more manageable and survivable, and it’s all thanks to clinical research studies.
Clinical research studies are usually conducted in four parts: the phase 1 clinical trial, the phase 2 clinical trial, the phase 3 clinical trial, and the phase 4 clinical trial. Each section of the entire clinical trail, from the phase 1 to the phase 3 clinical trial, is focused on a different are of research and is able to compose a fuller picture of how the drug that is being studied works and will work.
The phase 1 clinical trial, for instance, is primarily devoted to the safety of the use of the drug in human beings. After this phase of the trial is completed, the second phase of the clinical trial focuses more on the effectiveness of the drug. This phase of the trial is longer lasting than the first phase, sometimes taking as long as two whole years before completion, and tends to have a much larger test group than the first phase as well. The phase 3 clinical trial has an even bigger test group for the duration of this section, as the typical phase 3 clinical trial focuses on both safety and effectiveness on a large scale. In order to accurately do this, of course, the phase 3 clinical trial must recruit a great deal of people to participate in it. Last but not least, the final phase of the entire clinical trial, the phase 4 clinical trial, studies long term use of the drug or the treatment. All together, the four phases of the average clinical trial help to educate and inform us about a drug – and if it is ready to be marketed to a public audience.
So who funds these clinical trials that encompass everything from the phase 1 clinical trial to the phase 3 clinical trial? To put it shortly, it’s pharmaceutical companies providing this very necessary financial backing. In fact, pharmaceutical companies spent very nearly one hundred and fifty billion dollars on medical research going towards different stages of clinical trials (such as the phase 3 clinical trial) in the year of 2017 alone, let alone in any other year in this country. And nearly half of the eleven leading research and development firms all throughout the United States (five of them, to be more exact) were found to be pharmaceutical companies (in data that was gathered and published in the year of 2015). Pharmaceutical companies play a hugely important role in medical advancement, one that cannot and should not be discounted.
Clinical trials – from the phase 1 clinical trial to the phase 3 clinical trail – are hugely important things. After all, they help to advance medicine and cure previously untreatable diseases. They provide hope and possibility in America.
