Biotech Values

[mcbio]

I would disagree with this.

I would think that such small numbers increase your chance of seeing a result that is not representative of the "true" outcome as would be revealed by a large trial. In a sense, the result here is driven by the 4 control patients... if by chance they're a tightly knit group of 4 with very similar (but somewhat atypical) outcomes (ie. low st. dev.), then they could be the driving reason for the statistical significance.

Put it this way: if these results were stat sig from 4 patients on drug and 12 on the control, there would be significant skepticism (rightly in my mind) about a company touting a stat sig result. I don't see why having 12 patients on drug and 4 on control makes it any more comforting.

I thought p-values took into account small numbers in a trial and there would thus be a need for more robust results to attain stat sig results. And I thought the definition of stat sig means that results, whether they occur in a few patients or in a large number, reflect a pattern and are not just due to chance. I'll defer to others on here who are much more knowledgeable than me on statistical matters (admittedly not my forte) but that's my impression.