Q&A: Improving preclinical trials

March 10, 2011

Studies are published regularly touting a promising new drug that could bring relief to thousands or millions of disease sufferers. However, published meta-analyses show that only around 5 percent of drugs that show potential in animal studies ever get licensed for human use. This low success rate is not only troubling scientifically, but also raises questions about the ethics of performing drug trials in humans that will not necessarily help the participants. (The Scientist)