Testing new drugs against old drugs

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BernardZ - 11 Nov 2006 15:18 GMT

This question sort of follows after my previous question.

Say after I invent a new drug. Now why is testing the results of
existing treatments against the new drug much dearer then testing
against a placebo? I would have thought that the existing drug in use
would be supplying a score.

Also if the old drug was tested against a placebo do you need to run a
series of testing using a placebo again or can you just quote the
previous round of placebo testings.

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Kurt Ullman - 11 Nov 2006 15:34 GMT

> This question sort of follows after my previous question.
>
> Say after I invent a new drug. Now why is testing the results of
> existing treatments against the new drug much dearer then testing
> against a placebo? I would have thought that the existing drug in use
> would be supplying a score.

I don't understand what you are asking. Can you try again?

> Also if the old drug was tested against a placebo do you need to run a
> series of testing using a placebo again or can you just quote the
> previous round of placebo testings.

If the older drug is already approved, you generally don't have to
mess with placebo if you are doing a comparison trial (for instance is
medicine New, better than medicine Old).

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Jim Chinnis - 12 Nov 2006 00:20 GMT

BernardZ <bernardZ@Nospam.com> wrote in part:

>This question sort of follows after my previous question.
>
>Say after I invent a new drug. Now why is testing the results of
>existing treatments against the new drug much dearer then testing
>against a placebo? I would have thought that the existing drug in use
>would be supplying a score.

I don't understand what you are asking.

>Also if the old drug was tested against a placebo do you need to run a
>series of testing using a placebo again or can you just quote the
>previous round of placebo testings.

You cannot use the placebo results of a different experiment to compare
against the results from a new drug. The placebo (and treatment) results
come from many uncontrolled or irreproducible factors in the subject
selection and experimental design and implementation. One canoot assign new
subjects to the old placebo group, so randomization is impossible in the new
experiment unless a new control group is used.
--
Jim Chinnis Warrenton, Virginia, USA

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