RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:TimeFirst of all 150mg was not statistically powered in the Phase 2B trial so it did not show that it statistacally beat placebo---get your facts straight.
Secondl, your argument is that PK shows that we will beat it at 75mg. Do you even know what the placebo-effect is? Based on your response you do not. The pleacebo-effect has nothing to do with the effectiveness or the science of the drug but the trial participants perception of the effectiveness over placebo.
The placebo effect is when an improvement of symptoms is observed, despite using a nonactive treatment. It's believed to occur due to psychological factors like expectations or classical conditioning. Research has found that the placebo effect can ease things like pain, fatigue, or depression. A 2014 study led by Kaptchuk and published in Science Translational Medicine explored this by testing how people reacted to migraine pain medication. One group took a migraine drug labeled with the drug's name, another took a placebo labeled "placebo," and a third group took nothing. The researchers discovered that the placebo was 50% as effective as the real drug to reduce pain after a migraine attack.
The researchers speculated that a driving force beyond this reaction was the simple act of taking a pill. "People associate the ritual of taking medicine as a positive healing effect," says Kaptchuk. "Even if they know it's not medicine, the action itself can stimulate the brain into thinking the body is being healed."
If you ask Dan or Joe if they are worried about the possibility of a placebo effect on this new Phase 2 or 3 trial and they say no then they would be lying. They can mitigate this effect to some extent by monitoring the trial and increasing the trial size and possibly duration if they notice that efficacy is not trending to statistical significance. But this will not guarantee that success of the trial.