A slight misunderstanding

[lederhosen]

Via Mediawatch, transcript of '9 AM with David and Kim', discussing the recent UK drug trial disaster:

David Reyne: Some of these guys were given a placebo.

Dr. David Ritchie: Correct

David Reyne: I don’t really understand what a placebo is, but it seems to have, to have saved them! And wouldn’t it make sense that every time a trial like this takes place, that there’s a placebo on hand.

*sigh*

Exercise yesterday: 10km. Total 191km/115mi. Captured by Barrow-wights.

Comments

[tyggerjai.livejournal.com]

Ah. If it's poorly implemented, then yes, that's wrong.

I used to work for a clinical trials company. There's an illusion of independence, but so long as your data meets FDA (yes, FDA - the Australian legislation basically says "See FDA section 11", or whatever) requirements you're effectively working for Glaxo Smith Kline.

It was a very depressing experience.

You do simultaneous tests so you can say you tested it on 6 people and get the drug to market first. To be fair, you have to go through a hell of a lot of trials before you even start thinking about testing on humans, but no, heaven forbid anything increase your time to market ....

sol.
.

[lederhosen.livejournal.com]

And, yeah, it's easy for the rest of us to be wise after the fact. In the real world, scheduling eight patients for eight different days isn't necessarily trivial. I can speculate about whether it was conducted with adequate care, but in the end I'm not in a position to make that judgement with certainty.