One topic not discussed regarding clinic trials is the issue of whether or not your health care insurance provider will pay for an "experimental treatment." In many cases, they will not pay for a treatment that is part of a phase III trial. If it is true that phase III trials lack volunteers (and I'd like to see some data on that), certainly this is one major reason why that is true.

But it stands to reason that the drug companies ought to pay for the trials. Firstly, they are the ones who stand to win big if their drug actually works, therefore they are the ones who ought to take the risk. Secondly, the way insurers are structured financially is to reduce risk; whereas the financial structure of drug companies is to basically gamble the company on every new drug.