Patient Resource Hub

Knowledge Empowers! 

Only you and your family can decide if a clinical trial is right for you. At BIO, we believe that pharmaceutical companies, federal agencies, patient organizations, and other stakeholders in drug development share an important responsibility to ensure that anyone making this choice is presented with all the necessary information -- both potential benefits and risks. By ensuring that potential clinical trial participants are well-informed, we empower patients to take an active role in the management of their own health. 
 

People participate in clinical trials for many reasons

Participants generally fall into two categories: Patient Volunteers or Healthy Volunteers.

Patient volunteers, or people with known health issues, participate in clinical trials to better understand, diagnose, treat, or cure those diseases or conditions. Patients with any disease type and at any stage of illness -- including newly diagnosed patients, patients in remission, and patients who have exhausted all other treatment options -- can participate in clinical trials. Patient volunteers take part to help others, but also to potentially access the latest experimental treatments and to benefit from additional care provided by clinical trial team members.

Clinical trials are not just for people with health conditions. Healthy volunteers, or people without known health issues, participate in clinical trials to test a new drug, device, or procedure for the benefit of others. A healthy volunteer might have a loved one with a health issue and want to participate in research that could potentially benefit them. Others might participate for the satisfaction of helping researchers move science forward and improve our understanding of how to prevent and treat diseases. For example, clinical trials of vaccines -- including the trials for Covid-19 vaccines -- involve healthy volunteers. Healthy volunteers are almost always paid for participating, too.

Generally, healthy volunteers participate in Phase I trials, which are performed to ensure a treatment is safe and determine the correct dosage. Patient volunteers can participate in Phase I trials and later phases, which demonstrate that a treatment is both safe and effective.

Patient and healthy volunteers can learn about clinical trials in a variety of ways -- from their doctor, an advertisement seeking volunteers, or a website like ClinicalTrials.gov. It's always best to check with your doctor before joining a clinical trial.