Fantastic news: UK universities get serious about clinical trial transparency
Most UK universities are working hard to improve their clinical trial reporting, and have adopted ambitious and wide-ranging plans for the future, new data shows.
Freedom of Information requests filed with 27 UK medical research universities show that over the past months, UK universities as a whole have made impressive progress in developing policies and processes to ensure that in future, medical research results will be promptly made public.
In addition, a large majority of universities is taking steps to prevent the results of old clinical trials from becoming research waste. While some gaps remain, progress across the sector as a whole is excellent.
The strong momentum towards greater transparency is largely driven by a combination of pressure from parliament, research funders, and the British public.
As a result, scientific progress will be accelerated and public health decision-making improved, to the benefit of UK taxpayers and patients worldwide.
Till Bruckner, founder of TranspariMED, said:
“This is fantastic news for patients and taxpayers. Most UK universities are not only committed to preventing medical research waste going forward, but are also working hard to identify older unreported clinical trials and make their results public. Universities' efforts will prevent millions of pounds in public investment into health research from becoming irretrievably lost. Clearly, where there is a will, there is a way. Universities elsewhere in Europe should follow the positive example of their UK peers and start tackling their unreported trials as soon as possible.”
Read the full report, including details on the steps taken by each university, here:
