Clinical Trials Insurance

A clinical trial is a controlled study, conducted on either animals or humans, which is intended to evaluate either a new product or a new use for an existing product. A controlled study is one in which several groups of similar participants are evaluated under conditions that vary in only one way. In the simplest circumstances, the variable is the use of either the subject product or a placebo. By using similar participants under similar conditions, any significant difference in outcome between the groups reasonably can be attributed to the participants’ exposure to the subject product, whereas a lack of difference in outcomes would indicate that the subject product is statistically ineffective. Additionally, most studies are double-blind, meaning that neither the investigator nor the participant knows which group – active or control – the participant is in. This prevents bias in care on the part of the investigator and allows the data to be evaluated in a manner that controls for any placebo effect.