What is the importants of statistics in testing a new drug?
I work as a biostatistician, so I actually do this for a living. Drug are tested for two primary thing; efficacy and safety. The efficacy, or the effectiveness of the drug is tested against either a placebo or the best drug for the disease on the market. This testing will tell you whether or not your drug actually works. We also test for safety. Every adverse event (anything from dry mouth to vomiting) is recorded. We use statistical analysis to determine if the adverse event occur more frequently in the study drug than in the placebo. The reason we use statistical testing is that it allows for the testing of the fewest amount of people while still finding a significant difference. This is important because if the drug does not work we want to get the patient on a drug that does work, and if it is not safe, we want to limit the exposure to the drug. Note that if it is determined that a drug does not work, the drug companies place the participants on the drug that works. Also the patien
