Here are the different sorts of clinical trials we have conducted:
Phase One
This phase was the most toxic and many trials never passed this point. The basic aim of this phase was to find the Maximum Toxic Dose (MTD) that patients could cope with.
Phase Two
This stage involved few patients and aimed to establish the efficiency of a treatment.
Phase Three
Phase three tested the new treatment against the gold standard, with typically half the patients receiving standard treatment and the other half receiving the standard treatment plus the trial drug. These trials were conducted ‘blind’ so the patient was not aware of the treatment type they were receiving.
There were many people on a phase three trial where the goal was to understand if the new drug or combination of drugs was better than the current gold standard treatment.
NICE
If the trial showed that the new drug had better results than the current best treatment, it was then up to the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) to assess if the cost and benefit of the new drug warranted its introduction to mainstream treatment.
Phase Four
This phase was post marketing and followed patients who have entered the trial and received treatment.
Any stage of the clinical trial can take years of treatment and years of follow-up appointments. It can also take around 10 years for a clinical trial to get from phase one to phase three being delivered.