Trial results to be available to the public on the internet
International agreement has been reached on the publication of results from post-marketing clinical trials sponsored by pharmaceutical companies. All clinical trials to determine the therapeutic benefit of medicines will also be announced on the internet so that patients and clinicians will know what is being done and how to enrol.
Both initiatives will be adopted by pharmaceutical companies worldwide
this year, following an agreement announced last week between the European
Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations, the International
Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers’ Associations, the Japanese
Pharmaceutical Manufacturers’ Association and Pharmaceutical Research
and Manufacturers of America.
Health minister Lord Warner, who criticised companies late last year
for not making quick enough progress on this, said: “It is for
the whole industry to take forward practical measures giving effect to
this agreement speedily, especially in the context of the global initiative
on clinical trials discussed at the Mexico health research summit in
November.”
Some companies and the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry
have
already launched their own initiatives in these areas, so the new plans
to create what amounts to a global database will be implemented through
links between websites, rather than the launch of a single global
website.
An ABPI spokesman said discussions were under way to establish a World
Health Organization web portal to link clinical trial websites by the
end of the year.
A site launched by the ABPI last year currently has records of 117 clinical
trials being conducted by seven ABPI member companies. Details of a further
13,000 clinical trials have been registered on a US site. |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal
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