Successful clinical trials? Very simple!

Very interesting article.

Methods Used by Pharmaceutical Companies to Get the Results They Want from Clinical Trials

 ■Conduct a trial of your drug against a treatment known to be inferior.

 ■Trial your drugs against too low a dose of a competitor drug.

 ■Conduct a trial of your drug against too high a dose of a competitor drug (making your drug seem less toxic).

 ■Conduct trials that are too small to show differences from competitor drugs.

 ■Use multiple endpoints in the trial and select for publication only those that give favourable results.

 ■Do multi-centre trials and select for publication only those results from centres that are favourable.

 ■Conduct subgroup analyses and select for publication only those that are favourable.

 ■Present results that are most likely to impress – for example, reduction in relative rather than absolute risk.