King Nebuchadnezzar II, the greatest king of the Chaldean dynasty of Babylonia once ordered his people to have only meat and wine as a diet that he believed would keep them fit. But the population who were vegetarian refused the king’s order. The king in a state of curiosity permitted the rebels to instead follow a diet of legumes and water only for 10 days after which their health would be assessed by the king. At the end of the experiment, those who had the diet of legumes and water were seen to be fitter than those who had the diet of meat and wine. And so he allowed them to continue with their chosen diet.

Dr. James Lind is the first physician to conduct controlled clinical trials of the modern era. In 1747, Dr. Lind after testing several scurvy treatments on the crew members of the British naval ship Salisbury found out that lemons and oranges are the most effective for treating scurvy. 20th May is known as the International Clinical Trials Day as the first controlled trial began on the same day of 1747 by Dr. James Lind.

Aspirin is one of the first medicines that came into common use by people. But it is still one of the most researched medicines or drugs worldwide with clinical trials conducted estimated between 700 and 1000 each year. It is used since 3000 BC when Sumerians and Egyptians used salicin-derived acetylsalicylic acid from Willow bark as a medicine. Aspirin is termed such by Bayer in 1899 and since then it has been continuously researched for advancements.

In Hooper’s Medical History Dictionary of 1811, “Placebo” appeared first at the beginning of the 1800s where it was defined as “an epithet given to any medicine more, to please than to benefit the patient”. And then after 52 years later, a US physician conducted the first clinical study by using a “dummy remedy” to compare it with the active treatment.

Clinical trials are the most crucial step in drug development without which new drugs produced are of no use. But at present, the number of clinical trials has increased along with the advancement in drug development.

In the past 10 years, more than 290 medicines have been approved offering new hopes to patients with life-threatening and hard-to-treat diseases. The introduction of drugs or medicines offers improvement of the physical as well as mental well-being of patients suffering from diseases and also reduces hospitalization.

The DNDi (The Drugs for Neglected diseases initiative) targets to provide new treatments by the year 2023 for leishmaniasis, sleeping sickness, Chagas disease, filariasis, pediatric HIV, mycetoma, and hepatitis C.

Clinical Trials have improved the survival rate of childhood cancer. It has risen from 10% in 1950 to 80% in recent years. Clinical trials are advancing the cancer research methods making them more specific and tailored to treat each and every individual suffering from the disease, instead of the disease as a whole.

www.phistar.in="" interesting-facts-about-clinical-trials="">Clinical Research are crucial and are becoming mandatory so is the Clinical Research Industry is growing exponentially. Job opportunities are also growing in Clinical Research. Recently it was reported in leading News Papers, which across the globe there are more than 2.5 lakh jobs available in the Clinical Research Industry.