CLINICAL TRIAL
Dictionary entry overview: What does clinical trial mean?
• CLINICAL TRIAL (noun)
The noun CLINICAL TRIAL has 1 sense:
1. a rigorously controlled test of a new drug or a new invasive medical device on human subjects; in the United States it is conducted under the direction of the FDA before being made available for general clinical use
Familiarity information: CLINICAL TRIAL used as a noun is very rare.
Dictionary entry details
• CLINICAL TRIAL (noun)
Meaning:
A rigorously controlled test of a new drug or a new invasive medical device on human subjects; in the United States it is conducted under the direction of the FDA before being made available for general clinical use
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Synonyms:
clinical test; clinical trial
Hypernyms ("clinical trial" is a kind of...):
run; test; trial (the act of testing something)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "clinical trial"):
phase I; phase I clinical trial (a clinical trial on a few persons to determine the safety of a new drug or invasive medical device; for drugs, dosage or toxicity limits should be obtained)
phase II; phase II clinical trial (a clinical trial on more persons than in phase I; intended to evaluate the efficacy of a treatment for the condition it is intended to treat; possible side effects are monitored)
phase III; phase III clinical trial (a large clinical trial of a treatment or drug that in phase I and phase II has been shown to be efficacious with tolerable side effects; after successful conclusion of these clinical trials it will receive formal approval from the FDA)
phase IV; phase IV clinical trials (sometimes the FDA approves a drug for general use but requires the manufacturer to continue to monitor its effects; during this phase the drug may be tried on slightly different patient populations than those studied in earlier trials)
