Randomized Trials Stopped Early for Benefit
There are times when researchers feel that the benefits for a product or drug they are testing are showing strong enough during earlier phases of research for the researchers to cancel the trial and proclaim the drug or procedure a success. These types of releases typically get much fanfare.
So this study looked at this phenomena and found that, in many cases, the decision to end a trial early was “jumping the gun” and when the data is looked at more closely, the “wonderful results” seen in the trial might not hold up too well. Yet another marketing ploy for the drug companies. Not only that, but think how much money they save by not completing the clinical trials.