What is a Clinical Trial?

Clinical trials are often also referred to as medical trials or medical research and are focussed on the development of medicines.

The development of a new medicine is a lengthy and costly process – all medicines will have previously undergone rigorous testing in the laboratory before progressing onto clinical trials in humans and the development of a new drug typically takes between 10 – 15 years.

A clinical trial is the scientific term used to describe the testing of a new medicine or medical device to evaluate whether the drug or device is effective and safe for people to use. Other terms often used to describe clinical trials are drug trials, medical trials, medical studies or drug research.

Clinical trials are carried out under the strict supervision of fully qualified doctors, nurses and other health professionals.

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