What Are The Four Phases Of Clinical Trials?

Clinical trials studying and evaluating new drugs evolve through a number of different stages known as ‘phases”. Early phase trials examine the safety and dosing of the candidate drugs, while later phase trials are concerned more with safety, tolerability and comparison against existing competitor drugs. In totality, it can take biopharmaceutical companies and medical device manufacturers up to 6-7 years to complete all clinical trials for a new therapy.

The four major clinical trial phases are phases I, II, III, and IV.