I guess what I was trying to state, was fully knowing the mechanism isn't required for starting human trials. Knowing potential side effects, dosage, and treatment timelines are required. We often come out with drugs that we don't exactly know why/how they work, but we know they do and have a decent understanding of the risks. I watched many possible treatments die at this stage of research. Funding gets pulled, the researcher simply doesn't want to take it to the next stage, or many other reasons that is never gets moved towards phase 1 trials. Universities and the NIH have set up methods to try and combat this and help things move forward, but I doubt that the particular research on focusing in on the mechanism for treatment will really advance any of the key questions for moving to phase 1 (dosage, safety, and treatment plan). In my experience the basic biology research is critical for understanding what is going on but is not targeted to really move treatments forward.
Ah, then I agree with your point. Science doesn't work in terms of absolutes when it comes to knowledge, it only offers degrees of certainty. Until we know with a reasonable degree of certainty that the proposed treatment won't cause even worse side effects it's best to hold off on human trials.
I guess what I was trying to state, was fully knowing the mechanism isn't required for starting human trials. Knowing potential side effects, dosage, and treatment timelines are required. We often come out with drugs that we don't exactly know why/how they work, but we know they do and have a decent understanding of the risks. I watched many possible treatments die at this stage of research. Funding gets pulled, the researcher simply doesn't want to take it to the next stage, or many other reasons that is never gets moved towards phase 1 trials. Universities and the NIH have set up methods to try and combat this and help things move forward, but I doubt that the particular research on focusing in on the mechanism for treatment will really advance any of the key questions for moving to phase 1 (dosage, safety, and treatment plan). In my experience the basic biology research is critical for understanding what is going on but is not targeted to really move treatments forward.
Ah, then I agree with your point. Science doesn't work in terms of absolutes when it comes to knowledge, it only offers degrees of certainty. Until we know with a reasonable degree of certainty that the proposed treatment won't cause even worse side effects it's best to hold off on human trials.