Clinical trial transparency

The ABPI is committed to greater clinical trial transparency: we believe that clinical trial results should be posted in publicly accessible registries and databases and published in the scientific literature in a timely manner.

To help companies achieve this, the ABPI launched its clinical trial disclosure toolkit in the summer of 2013.

Clinical trial transparency has improved over five years of monitoring. Latest results show that for newly licensed medicines approved in 2014 the disclosure rate has reached 93% at 12 months (up from 71% in 2009) and 96% overall.

The ABPI Code of Practice refers to the IFPMA joint positions on the disclosure and publication of clinical trial information and results in that trials must be registered within 21 days of enrolling the first patient, and results must be published within one year of marketing authorisation or one year from completion for marketed products. This is in line with the IFPMA Code of Practice to support a global position on trials transparency.

The industry is also committed to enhancing public health through responsible sharing of clinical trial data consistent with the EFPIA/PhRMA principles of data sharing.

During 2017 pharmaceutical companies spent £370.9 million on research and development activities with healthcare professionals and healthcare organisations, the majority of this is for clinical trials.

Many companies have also collaborated to develop ClinicalStudyDataRequest.com and Vivli.org providing researchers with access to clinical trial data to further research that can help advance medical science or improve patient care.