Perception of Risk through Phases of Drug Research and Development: Questionnaire Survey

We used a web-based questionnaire survey to investigate how employees from the pharmaceutical and allied health industries perceive the importance of different steps within drug research and development for assessing the benefits and risks of developmental drugs to reach market registration and enter into clinical use. Key outcomes were that Pharmaceutical Processes were seen as least important while Toxicology was most important followed by Clinical Trials Phases 2 Late/3, Safety and Pharmacovigilance, and Clinical Trials Phase 2 Early. Nonparametric analysis showed that these outcomes were influenced by demographics of the selected employee target population. Since this survey was exploratory, we feel the expressed judgments of the study population are important for planning research surveys using more complex scenarios to investigate intuitive perception of risks and benefits in drug research and development.