§ Glossary · pharmacology

Phase 3

The penultimate stage of clinical drug development — large randomised trials testing efficacy and safety against existing standards of care.

Phase 3 trials test a drug candidate against either placebo or the existing standard of care in large patient populations (typically 1,000–10,000+ subjects) over months to years. Successful phase 3 trials produce the primary efficacy and safety dataset used in regulatory submissions to the FDA, EMA, MHRA, etc. Several research compounds in our catalogue — Retatrutide (TRIUMPH programme), Cagrilintide (REDEFINE programme) — are currently in phase 3. Approval typically follows 1–2 years after primary endpoint readout if the data is favourable.

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