US FDA Moves to Improve Early Testing of New Drugs

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. health officials issued new guidance on Thursday on how to conduct small, early human tests of experimental medicines in an effort to help researchers identify sooner which drugs have a chance at reaching the market.

The guidelines, in part, detail ways to make small batches of experimental medicines to test tiny doses in people. Previously, researchers had to meet costly requirements for large-scale manufacturing to do early tests, Food and Drug Administration officials said.

Studying small doses can be useful because new technology enables scientists to see if an experimental drug behaves as expected in the body and reaches its intended target, such as a tumor, officials said.

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