What Happens After the Trial?

 When a clinical trial ends, several things might happen. For a serious illness, a pharmaceutical company might continue to provide the study medication to those patients that are responding well. On some occasions, a patient will stop receiving the investigational treatment. In this case, a patient may have to wait for the drug to become available to the public.
 After a study is complete, all of the information is collected and analyzed. This information determines whether a study drug is working, whether it is safe and whether it has any side effects. FDA medical advisors and specialists closely review this data before approving any new drug.
 Even after a drug is approved, pharmaceutical companies will continue to conduct studies that compare the new drug — in terms of its safety, effectiveness and cost — to other drugs already on the market. Other research studies may determine if a therapy can be administered to children or special populations. And some studies assess a drug's long-term effectiveness and its impact on the quality of a person's life.
 Every volunteer in a clinical trial is extremely valuable and important. Without volunteers, there would be no new drugs to fight diseases and ailments. By participating in a clinical trial, you are helping yourself and others like you live longer and healthier lives now and long into the future.
 To learn more about clinical trials, go to Centerwatch.com by clicking on the link on this page. Centerwatch.com is a good source for patients to learn more about volunteering in a clinical trial. Just follow the link under Patient Resources to "About Clinical Research." There you will find a good summary on how medicines go from the biochemists' laboratory, through the Investigational New Drug Phase which encompasses the Drug Study, to your pharmacist's shelf.