BMJ  2005;330 (15 January), doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7483.0-g

Editor's choice

Trial results: the next battle

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Drug companies last week announced a plan to make results from clinical trials of new drugs publicly available (p 109). Summary results of completed, industry sponsored trials will be disclosed regardless of outcome, say trade associations of the world's drug companies. On the face of it, this move is one to be cautiously welcomed.

Cynically, you might argue that recent alarms about the safety of highly prescribed drugs and subsequent plunges in share price for AstraZeneca, Pfizer, and Merck—described by the Financial Times as "a painful six months for the pharmaceuticals industry"—may have inspired this display of virtue. Political and public pressure, and the threat of future legislation, for full disclosure of clinical trial results, particularly in the United States, is another driver of change. An initiative by leading medical journals, including the BMJ, to consider for publication only trials recorded in public registries is a small . . . [Full text of this article]

Kamran Abbasi, acting editor

(kabbasi@bmj.com)


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