If you are interested in taking part in a clinical trial, you should talk to your doctor. They can talk to you about the clinical trial process and discuss whether it could be a suitable option.
You can also search for a Galapagos clinical trial. You will find the most important requirements for you to enter clearly displayed for each clinical trial. We recommend taking down the details of the clinical trial if you have found one. To help with this, you are able to download page summaries of each of our clinical trials.
If you or your doctor have found a suitable clinical trial and it is thought that you meet the requirements for taking part (after carefully reading the inclusion criteria), your doctor, if appropriate, will then get in touch with the clinical trial coordinator at the clinical trial site.
You may have lots of questions when talking to a doctor about a clinical trial. To help prepare for conversations, we have developed a discussion guide, which covers information on what is likely to happen during your appointment and some useful questions you might want to ask. You can download, print and take this guide to your appointment.
Once your doctor contacted the clinical trial coordinator, they will explain the clinical trial to you. If you would like to participate in the clinical trial you will need to sign aninformed consent form (you can withdraw your consent and choose to drop out at any time). You will then undergo a series of screening tests to check whether you meet the inclusion criteria for entering the clinical trial. This could include blood tests, scans or biopsies; your doctor can give you a detailed overview.
Taking part
If you meet the inclusion criteria and agree to enter you, then you will be enrolled onto the clinical trial. How, when and where you need to go will be dependent on the clinical trial location and treatment.
Some clinical trials compare a new treatment to a standard one already available (standard of care) and others compare a treatment to a placebo, which does not contain any real treatment. Other clinical trials assess a treatment without any comparisons. Depending on the clinical trial type, this means you may not receive the treatment being tested.
During the clinical trial, you will have regular check-ups so that the researchers can assess how well the treatment is working and look for any side effects. You can leave the clinical trial at any point.
After the clinical trial
Your doctor will give you a detailed overview of what happens once your participation in the clinical trial has ended. They will then go through the next steps of your treatment or follow-up plan with you; it may not be possible for you to keep taking the drug you received during the clinical trial. You might not receive details on what treatment you received immediately after the clinical trial (if you were part of a randomized clinical trial). Clinical trial results will be shared with you after completion of the clinical trial. As it takes time to analyze the results, this can take up to a year after the completion of a clinical trial. For all Galapagos-sponsored clinical trials the so-called “lay summaries” will be posted on the clinical trial finder.
My wife and I drew up a list of questions of how clinical trials works, and what’s their goal, and then when we went to the hospital to meet the clinical trial team, they answered all my questions and any concerns that we had
