Description
Phase— Use this field to select the study phase you want to include in your search. You can select more than one study phase. If you do not select any study phase, all study phases, including Phase 0, will be included in your search results.
Phases are
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) categories
for describing the study of a drug based on the study's characteristics, such as the objective and number of participants. There are five phases:
Phase 0: Exploratory study involving very limited human exposure to the drug, with no therapeutic or diagnostic goals (for example, screening studies, microdose studies).
Phase 1: Studies that are usually conducted with healthy volunteers and that emphasize safety. The goal is to find out what the drug's most frequent adverse events are and, often, how the drug is metabolized and excreted.
Phase 2: Studies that gather preliminary data on effectiveness (whether the drug works in people who have a certain disease or condition). For example, participants receiving the drug may be compared with similar participants receiving a different treatment, usually an inactive substance (called a placebo) or a different drug. Safety continues to be evaluated, and short-term adverse events are studied.
Phase 3: Studies that gather more information about safety and effectiveness by studying different populations and different dosages and by using the drug in combination with other drugs.
Phase 4: Studies occurring after FDA has approved a drug for marketing.
These include postmarket requirement and commitment studies that are required of or agreed to by the sponsor. These studies gather additional information about a drug's safety, efficacy, or optimal use.
See Learn About Clinical Studies to learn more about the phases of drug trials.