For every drug or treatment out there, someone has had it tested on them to get it approved.
So what actually happens in clinical trials?
Some clinical drug trials can go on for months with participants receiving hundreds, or even thousands of dollars.
But they don’t all end well.
Read more: How do clinical trials work?
Dr Sophie Calabretto talks to Cosmos Magazine journalist Jacinta Bowler about why clinical trials are still the best process we have, how they can go wrong and why so many drugs fail to make it to market.
The Science Briefing is a LiSTNR production