Baltimore, the FDA will pretty much let you do anything you want as long as patients are not being harmed. They won't make business decisions for you, such as telling you how to power your trial. If you ask questions then of course they will give an opinion. FWIW, when I called to ask Anavex why the trials were uniformly too small, the response was that they were not sure 2-73 would work so didn't invest more. That was a little upsetting because I invested because I believed I was placing a bet on something they had full confidence in - and their holding back created more and not less risk for my investment. I think they believe in themselves now and are changing their approach (as seen by their increasing the 3-71 trial size.)