Trials campaign – for publication of all results

12 Feb. 2013

The government has set up a Commons Select Committee to inquire into clinical trials and disclosure of data.

To date, numerous trials are running, but not all results are always published or made available – especially the negative results.

The general concensus amongst physicians, patient groups and researchers is that good or bad – all results should be made available.

MDS UK fully supports this request.

Here is what the parliamentary website says:

Clinical trials in the UK are regulated by the Clinical Trials Directive which was transposed into UK law by the Medicines for Human Use (Clinical Trials) Regulations 2004. In December 2011, the Health Research Authority was created to protect and promote the interests of patients and the public in health research. In July 2012, the European Commission produced proposals to revise the Clinical Trials Directive.

Transparency and disclosure of clinical trial data have been topical recently, in part due to the recently published book Bad Pharma, by Dr Ben Goldacre. It highlighted that pharmaceutical companies are entitled to conduct numerous clinical trials on a new drug but publish selectively, thus skewing the evidence base available for doctors and patients seeking to make informed decisions.

PETITION
Here is also a petition with more information about the All Trials Campaign – which you can sign and forward to others.
This is what they say:
It’s time all clinical trial results are reported. Patients, researchers, pharmacists, doctors and regulators everywhere will benefit from publication of clinical trial results. Wherever you are in the world please sign the petition:

Thousands of clinical trials have not reported their results; some have not even been registered.
Information on what was done and what was found in these trials could be lost forever to doctors and researchers, leading to bad treatment decisions, missed opportunities for good medicine, and trials being repeated.
All trials past and present should be registered, and the full methods and the results reported.
We call on governments, regulators and research bodies to implement measures to achieve this.

For more info and to sign this petition: http://www.alltrials.net/

We are glad to hear that the pharma company GSK (GlaxoSmithKline) has committed to publishing all their clinical trial data.
We hope many more pharma companies will follow this example as soon as possible.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/feb/05/glaxo-smith-kline-publish-clinical-trial-data

We have also posted this information on our Facebook page – please share widely.

This is a potential important progress regarding the availability of information about existing and future drugs.