Clinical Trials

Treatments are first developed in the science laboratory to see whether they may be helpful in preventing or treating a particular illness. They are then tested on animals to check their safety and to find out how they affect the body. If they look like they may be useful, and are likely to be safe, they will then be tested through different stages of clinical trials in people.Clinical trials are carried out in two stages – 'early stage' and a 'later stage'.

Early stage trials usually involve a small number of patients or healthy people. These early stage studies can be used to 'fine tune' the treatment before it is tested on a large group of people.

Later stage clinical trials usually involve large numbers of people and are usually called 'randomised trials'. Medical devices are tested in a similar way.