Monitoring intervals, and the case against measuring too often
A panel that will not change a decision is a panel that generates work.
Clinical Trials in 2024
Page 5 of 11 of this archive, newest first.
SURPASS-2 misses on a secondary endpoint the coverage has not mentioned
A design note rather than a result: what the comparator was, and what that permits you to conclude.
The glycated haemoglobin assay, and the eight conditions that break it
The alternatives with shorter windows, what they measure, and why they are rarely ordered.
LEADER misses on a secondary endpoint the coverage has not mentioned
A design note rather than a result: what the comparator was, and what that permits you to conclude.
Grams per kilogram of what? The denominator problem in protein guidance
Where the familiar figures come from, what populations they were measured in, and how far the extrapolation reaches.
SURMOUNT-4 misses on a secondary endpoint the coverage has not mentioned
A design note rather than a result: what the comparator was, and what that permits you to conclude.
SURMOUNT-4 misses on a secondary endpoint the coverage has not mentioned
A design note rather than a result: what the comparator was, and what that permits you to conclude.
Which results are findings and which are consequences of the weight loss
Three different explanations for the same abnormal number, and how to tell them apart.
STEP 4 misses on a secondary endpoint the coverage has not mentioned
A design note rather than a result: what the comparator was, and what that permits you to conclude.
A year after stopping: what the trials found at the far end
The physiology of regain was described a decade before these drugs, and it explains the trajectory without invoking anything specific to them.
Seasonal use, holiday use, and the honest state of the evidence
An absence of evidence is not evidence of harm. It is also not a licence.
Lean mass is a compartment, not a tissue
A body-composition report gives four decimal places and no confidence interval. That is the whole difficulty in one sentence.
STEP 5 extension data: what happens after the trial stops
A design note rather than a result: what the comparator was, and what that permits you to conclude.
Weight regain is not a failure of willpower and it is not a mystery
The variance around the mean regain trajectory is large and unexplained, exactly as it is for the weight loss.
STEP 3 extension data: what happens after the trial stops
A design note rather than a result: what the comparator was, and what that permits you to conclude.
Why people actually stop, in the order they actually stop
A supply interruption is a discontinuation with no notice, no taper and no plan. That is a distinct clinical situation.
SURMOUNT-3 misses on a secondary endpoint the coverage has not mentioned
A design note rather than a result: what the comparator was, and what that permits you to conclude.
Seasonal use, holiday use, and the honest state of the evidence
The vocabulary is borrowed, the rationale is usually mechanistic, and the outcome data does not exist.
Why people actually stop, in the order they actually stop
A supply interruption is a discontinuation with no notice, no taper and no plan. That is a distinct clinical situation.
TRIUMPH-1 misses on a secondary endpoint the coverage has not mentioned
A design note rather than a result: what the comparator was, and what that permits you to conclude.