Noise-cancelling trials

MedAvante Inc. believes the reason clinical trials of psychiatric compounds so often fail has more to do with the way trials are enrolled and conducted than with the efficacy of the molecules they test. The company has data showing its centralized psychiatric rating and monitoring services can dramatically reduce misleading placebo response rates.

As a result, MedAvante says it can identify effective drugs that might otherwise be scrapped for lack of efficacy, and it can do so using fewer patients, less time and less money...