About Drug Development and Clinical Trials
What is a clinical trial?
Before any drug is approved for general use, it must go through three phases of testing called "clinical trials."Clinical trials are interventional research studies, involving human volunteers, that evaluate medical products, to ensure the new treatments are safe and effective (to evaluate how well they work in people).Researchers design clinical trials to answer specific research questions (like"will this drug lower HBV viral load?"), with trials following a specific study plan (protocol).People volunteer to participate in these trials and must meet specific criteria before being accepted into a study.
Learn more about eligibility criteria and how to participate in a clinical trial (here).
Please Note: While you may be willing to participate in a clinical trial, some trials may not exist in your country. Clinical trials are hosted in specific countries and are only available to those living in the listed countries. In many situations this is because the researcher has only permission (or funds) to operate in these countries, or because this is where the study is based. In other situations, the country where you live may not have properly equipped labs or may not approve of the study because of regulatory restrictions. The Hepatitis B Foundation is working with stakeholders and partners to help make hepatitis B and D clinical trials available to more people around the world.
You can look for hepatitis B and D clinical trials using this link.
The Hepatitis B Foundation does not run or sponsor clinical trials, but we do share information to help people learn about hepatitis B, hepatitis D, and liver cancer clinical trial opportunities. We also provide information and education about trials in general to help people make more informed decisions about trial participation. Clinical trials are very important for having new and better treatments in the future, and we want to help every interested person have information and access to trials.