New UK clinical trials legislation will prioritise transparency

The AllTrials campaign launched in 2013, calling for all clinical trials to be registered, with their summary results reported within 12 months. At the time this was portrayed as radical, unnecessary, and even dangerous.1 The chief executive of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry said the group would not “respond to PR driven initiatives such as AllTrials,” and journal editors doubted the necessity and effectiveness of trial registration.23

Ten years later, after multiple parliamentary inquiries on the topic, the UK is a world leader on clinical trials transparency. Before leaving the EU, the UK led all peer nations in ensuring availability of the results of medicinal product trials under EU regulations—nearly all major UK universities and NHS trusts now exceed 90% availability.4 This was driven in large part by the attention of the House of Commons Select Committee on Science and Technology.5 Major UK commercial sponsors such as GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca also show …