Safety in clinical trials.

Safety deals with the surveillance and detection of possible threats that can arise against a patient. It might not be an obvious one, like an anaphylactic shock, but a bizarre syndrome of late onset preceded by vague signs or symptoms. To be able to conclude about a possible causal relationship between a drug and such a state with as short a delay in time as possible, the collection and analysis of adverse events during the total clinical trial program of a drug is mandatory. To ask investigators for adverse drug reactions instead is to produce an effective filter, which may help in keeping the incidence figures down in the international data sheet but which also may prove to be hazardous for the pharmaceutical industry in the long run.