Published 25 June 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b2473
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b2473

Editorials

Making information about clinical trials publicly available

Open access to information on the EudraCT database will improve transparency

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

Recognition of the commercial and non-commercial benefits of greater transparency within clinical research has increased in the past decade. Public dissemination of the conduct and outcome of all clinical trials, including those performed as part of marketing authorisation applications, will ensure that professionals and patients have more information about how the safety and effectiveness of drugs has been evaluated. This will also prevent unnecessary duplication of research and, by encouraging greater scrutiny of clinical trials, will ensure that their ethical and scientific quality is improved. Wider dissemination of knowledge will also drive innovation and the conduct of further, more relevant, research.

This effort was considerably enhanced in 2004, when the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) announced that an essential criterion for publication of a trial in one of their journals was that the details of the trial should be publicly available in a clinical trials register.^{1 2} These requirements . . . [Full text of this article]

¹ Institute of Child Health, University of Liverpool, Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, Liverpool L12 2AP

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