Sweden: Number of clinical trial results reported doubled last year

Swedish research institutions and pharma companies uploaded a record number of clinical trial results onto the European trial registry during 2021, new data show.

The 24 largest medical research hubs in the country uploaded 29 clinical trial results between December 2020 and November 2021. In all previous years combined, the same sponsors had only uploaded 32 results.

Karolinska Instituet led the way, uploading eight clinical trial results. Orexo, Karolinska University Hospital and Gothenburg University also significantly improved their trial reporting.

In total, over half of Sweden’s largest 23 sponsors uploaded at least one additional result during 2021. Among the five largest trial sponsors in the country, only Skane University Hospital made no progress.

This strong progess has been driven by Cochrane Sweden, which:

• Contacted major Swedish trial sponsors to remind them of their transparency obligations

• Reached out to the media to draw public attention to the problem

• Organised a webinar on how to upload trial results onto EudraCT (slides and recording here)

The overall performance of Swedish sponsors still lags far behind that of their peers in Denmark and Germany, largely because they started the process later in time.

TranspariMED will keep tracking the progress of Swedish sponsors throughout 2022.