UK government 'must push for clinical trial transparency' - MP committee calls for publication of results from clinical trials using NHS treatments

All clinical trials conducted on treatments made available under the NHS in the UK should be registered and their results published, according to MPs. The Commons' Science and Technology Committee said the government has not been doing enough on trial transparency; a situation which is "undermining public trust, slowing the pace of medical advancement and potentially putting patients at risk", according to committee chair Andrew Miller. The report warns that unfavourable results from clinical trials are often going unpublished and many trials are not registered before they are carried out, with researchers in both industry and academia found to be at fault. The MPs paint a picture of systemic failures in trials oversight, from the government down. For example, it says the Health Research Authority (HRA), which oversees the research ethics committees (RECs) that monitor trials in the UK, found earlier this year that fewer than 50 per cent of RECs were checking whether researchers planned to publish their results before giving approval. The report comes as the pharma industry is fighting a rearguard action to try to limit the data from clinical trials that is made publicly available amid increasing pressure for full reporting of clinical trials, including all results and trial methods. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) wants full disclosure of trials on all the drugs it approves, while the AllTrials campaign, whose signatories include organisations such as NICE, IQWIG an...
Source: PharmaGossip - Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: Source Type: blogs