In search of better surrogate endpoints

One reason clinical trials can take a long time is because it can take a long time to see how a patient’s condition turns out - some diseases have a slow progression. A good “surrogate endpoint” is a biomarker that reliably tells you how a disease will turn out, so you don’t have to wait as long to know if a drug is working. But a bad surrogate endpoint can be misleading, and lead to drug approvals that don’t actually help patients. Ruxandra Teslo, writing for the Institute for Progress, is launching a series on getting more good surrogate endpoints.