Is The New Treatment Safe? Typically involving a few hundred patients, these studies aren't large enough to show whether the drug will be beneficial. However, if the results show that the treatment was associated … PHASES OF CLINICAL TRIAL a drug. Clinical trials are conducted in a series of steps called “phases.” Each phase has a different purpose and helps researchers answer different questions. At first, very few people receive the medicine being studied. padding: 0 0.25em 0 0.875em; All Right Reserved. We believe that all patients should have the power to access the most advanced healthcare available and our goal is to make this process as seamless as possible. The developer is responsible for informing the review team about new protocols, as well as serious side effects seen during the trial. Researchers design clinical trials to answer specific research questions … Materials for the volunteer participants are misleading. For drug development, the clinical phases start with testing for safety in a few human subjects, then expand to many study participants to determine if the treatment is effective. The earliest phase trials may look at whether a drug is safe or the side effects it causes. [CDATA[/* >