Something related to keep in mind when it comes to p-values is the false discovery rate: > If you run lots of phase 2 trials with different drug candidates whe

Something related to keep in mind when it comes to p-values is the false discovery rate: > If you run lots of phase 2 trials with different drug candidates where only a minority (lets say 10%) actually work, then with standard trial statistics (80% power and 5% false positive rate) you will get 4.5% false positive and 8% true positives – so less than 2 out of every 3 positive trial results were real. A much lower success rate than the 5% error rate commonly assumed. http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidgrainger/2015/01/29/why-too-many-clinical-trials-fail-and-a-simple-solution-that-could-increase-returns-on-pharma-rd/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidgrainger/2015/01/29/why-too... This recent (open access) review in R. Soc. Open Sci. the Forbes article was largely inspired by is worth a read too: http://rsos.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/1/3/140216 http://rsos.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/1/3/140216