Drugs often approved for wider use than tested, says Swiss study

A study led by a professor at the federal technology institute ETH Zurich has found that many medicines are approved for use in groups of people who weren’t part of the clinical trials. + Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox People under 60, with no underlying health conditions or previous treatments – these are the kinds of patients typically included in clinical trials. Strict criteria mean only a narrow slice of the population is tested. That’s a problem, because the effectiveness and side effects of a drug are only measured in this limited group. However, medicines are often approved by regulatory authorities for use in a broader population than the one tested. A new study highlights just how common this gap is between who gets tested and who ends up taking the drug. An international team of researchers, led by Kerstin Vokinger, Professor of Law and Medicine at the University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, has taken a closer look at how medicines are approved.