Analysis of 30 leading institutions found that just 17% of study results had been posted online as required by EU rules.
Failing to post the results of a clinical trial is not only a technical breach, it is a waste of resources, places an unwarranted burden on volunteers, is a waste of resources and is a public health issue. Does your institution follow-up to check if results have been reported? Is action taken if it hasn’t?
A report published on 30 April found that the results of only 162 of 940 clinical trials (17%) that were due to be published by 1 April had been posted on the European Union’s trials register. The 30 universities surveyed are those that sponsor the most clinical trials in the EU. Fourteen of these institutions had failed to publish a single results summary.
If three high-performing UK universities are excluded from the figures, the results of just 7% of the trials were made public on time. Campaigners say the resulting lack of transparency harms patients by undermining the efforts of doctors and health authorities to provide the best treatments, slows medical progress and wastes public funds.
