From clinical trials to clinical practice: How long are drugs tested and then used by patients?

Objective: Evidence is scarce regarding the safety of long-term drug use, especially for drugs treating chronic diseases. To bridge this knowledge gap, this research investigated the differences in drug exposure between clinical trials and clinical practice.

Materials and methods: We extracted drug follow-up times from clinical trials in ClinicalTrials.gov and compared the difference between clinical trials and real-world usage data for 914 drugs taken by 96 645 927 patients.

Results: A total of 17.5% of drugs had longer median exposure in practice than in trials, 6% of patients had extended exposure to at least 1 drug, and drugs treating nervous system disorders and cardiovascular diseases were the most common among drugs with high rates of extended exposure.

Conclusions: For most of patients, the drug use length is shorter than the tested length in clinical trials. Still, a remarkable number of patients experienced extended drug exposure, particularly for drugs treating nervous system disorders or cardiovascular disorders.