European institutions pick up pace on clinical trial reporting

Medical pressure groups praise increase in results posted to EU registry, but problems remain

Groups pushing transparency in medical research have welcomed a “dramatic improvement” in the reporting of overdue clinical trial data in Europe, but some institutions have yet to clear their backlogs ahead of tighter EU regulations due in January.

To comply with EU guidelines, sponsors of clinical trials must report results on an EU register within a year of the trials’ completion, to prevent selective reporting distorting research and improve the transparency of a vital area of science. But compliance has frequently been shown to be patchy, especially at universities.