Riding In Cars With Researchers

Today I'm going to answer a question that I frequently get from patients….”if the study drug works for me, can I continue to take it at the end of the trial?” Unfortunately, usually, no. Why? The point of research is to have a systemized process whereby we can look at the safety and efficacy of something stepwise, where piece by piece we learn more about the safety and the efficacy of something. That's why the whole thing exists and that's why we can't just simply give experimental compounds to people without regulatory bodies like FDA, EMA, and Health Canada looking at, vetting, and approving our ability to move forward. The process is slow, but it exists for a reason. It exists to protect you and that's a good thing. The downside is if you got benefit in a research trial, you can't simply stay on the compound that we used. Are there exceptions?