Academic clinical trial

An academic clinical trials is a clinical trial not funded by pharmaceutical or biotechnology company for commercial ends but by public-good agencies (usually universities or medical trusts) to advance medicine. These trials are a valuable component of the health care system; they benefit patients and help determine the safety and efficacy of drugs and devices, and play an important role in the checks and balances that regular commercially oriented clinical trials. An academic clinical trials is a clinical trial not funded by pharmaceutical or biotechnology company for commercial ends but by public-good agencies (usually universities or medical trusts) to advance medicine. These trials are a valuable component of the health care system; they benefit patients and help determine the safety and efficacy of drugs and devices, and play an important role in the checks and balances that regular commercially oriented clinical trials. A typical area of academic clinical trials is the advancement and optimization of already existing therapies. Thus, academic clinical trials may for instance test how a combination of registered drugs may improve treatment outcomes; or they may apply registered treatments in additional, less frequent indications. Such research questions are not a primary focus of for-profit companies, and thus these trials are typically initiated by individual investigators or academic research organizations.