Developing a drug is a costly gamble. Getting one to market takes, on average, more than ten years and a billion dollars. About 85% of therapies fail in early clinical trials. And of those that survive through to phase III, generally the last step before regulatory approval, only half will actually be approved… Paul Limburg, a gastroenterologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, decided to launch a phase 0 study of the new AKT drug formulations. The results, published in March, allowed the team to pick the one absorbed best by the body for use in future trials.
Nature, by Heidi Ledford, 9/29/11
Tags: Pharmacology, Research