3 ms·
I think we'll begin to see an acceleration of drug research. Pharmaceutical trials typically take over a decade to complete, so the drugs available for general
by weavejester 16y ago
I think we'll begin to see an acceleration of drug research. Pharmaceutical trials typically take over a decade to complete, so the drugs available for general use now were devised back in the 1990s. Back then, clinical trials were largely paper-based, and needed to have a relatively large number of subjects to be proven safe.
Nowadays clinical trials are usually managed by web applications, which give a real-time view of how the trial is progressing. We're also beginning to see drug trials targeted at specific generic groups. The idea is that you need a smaller sample size to prove a drug works for a certain genetic subset of the population, so less initial investment is required. If the drug is successful, further trials can expand the number of people that can use it.