Ethical and practical issues in conducting clinical trials in psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis

Ethical considerations are inexorably intertwined with the conduct of clinical research. As a result of progress in immunology and biotechnology, several potent novel therapeutics have recently emerged for the treatment of patients with various immunologically driven systemic inflammatory conditions, including psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis. Because of these developments, there is a need to continually assess the design of current and future research studies so that they may be conducted in the optimal and most ethical manner.