Should experimenters use placebos in their tests of drugs when doing so prevents subjects from deriving the potential benefits from a new medicine?

Pro: The design of experiments for testing the efficacy of new drugs often requires that some subjects receive placebos. Those individuals who do receive the inactive substances have no chance of deriving any benefit from the new medicines.

Pro: At the outset of drug-testing studies, there is no certainty that a newly developed drug has any therapeutic value.