Non-Inferiority in Clinical Trials

Usually clinical trials should show if a new treatment is superior to placebo or no treatment, but as we've previously discussed it is not always ethical to give out a placebo when an effective treatment has been identified.

The goal of non-inferiority trials is to  to demonstrate a new treatment (T) is NOT inferior (no worse than) the best available treatment (C), given the effect of the active control (compared to placebo or no treatment) has already been established.