Opinion: How one pharmaceutical company is reinventing the clinical trial

Millions of Americans— most of us, in fact — rely on medications, from prescription drugs for high cholesterol, diabetes, asthma, cancer, and the like to over-the-counter medicines for allergy, acne, and other conditions.

While the myriad medications we take differ from one another, they have something important in common: Before they were sold to a single person, they were tested by people who volunteered to take part in clinical trials. It was only after these trials demonstrated the drugs had favorable benefit-risk profiles that they were able to make their way to pharmacy shelves.

Clinical trials are as essential today as drug discovery for bringing new drugs to market. But while new tools and technologies have helped advance techniques for new drug discovery, we’ve seen far less innovation in clinical trials. The process continues to be