Every so often, clinical tries are said to ‘fail’, but can the trial actually fail? According to John Lechleiter, President and CEO of Eli Lilly and Company, “a clinical trial is a failure only if we can’t learn from it.” He believes that no matter how a clinical trial is designed or run, it can’t fail.
Lechleiter goes on to explain what failure means in a clinical trial. He describes, “in a clinical trial, a medicine may fail to reach the very strict, predetermined statistical bar that was set for its desired effect in patients.” Clinical trials help researchers see which types of patients can benefit from the specific drug being tested, and which ones won’t. It is important to know that clinical trials can fail to meet requirements and their endpoints, but they do not fail to let researchers learn how to improve and create a more effective treatment in the future.
To read more on John Lechleiter’s article in Forbes, click here.