Claim that would like to be made at the end of the trial. The scientific method states that to prove something, assume the compliment is true and then look for contradictory evidence. If sufficient contradictory evidence is observed, then the desired claim has been proven. Typically the alternative hypothesis is something that the investigator desires to prove (e.g., that a new treatment is superior to placebo). The investigator thus assumes that the compliment (called the null hypothesis) is true and then looks for evidence to disprove the null hypothesis and hence claim the alternative hypothesis to be true.