Concerned Pharmacists Sign the AllTrials petition

From Mrs A. E. Bithell, MRPharmS, and others We write as concerned pharmacists about the issue of missing clinical trial data. The effectiveness and safety of medicines is of interest to all pharmacists in all sectors of the profession. Unpublished clinical trials skew the evidence base on which their harms and benefits can be assessed, and ultimately lead to patient harm and wasted health resources. How can pharmacists advise others on the safe and effective use of medicines, or prescribe them, when the sources of information we use have not assessed the entirety of the evidence? It has been estimated that around half of clinical trials have not been published1 and this occurs regardless of whether the study was performed by the pharmaceutical industry or not, the stage of drug development or the size of the trial.2 Current initiatives to tackle the problem have failed. Journal requirements for trials to be registered have not been enforced,3 the European Medicines Agency clinical trials register has failed to open up data fully,4 and US Food and Drug Administration legislation on trials has not been effectively enforced.5 Additionally, many of these initiatives only deal with contemporary studies based in western countries. Older trials, and those by contract research organisations in countries such as Brazil and India, are excluded. Currently the Royal Pharmaceutical Society is a member of the Ethical Standards in Health and Life Sciences Group. One of its objectives i...
Source: PharmaGossip - Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: Source Type: blogs