FLICKR, CANDYThe credibility of clinical trial data is undermined when pharmaceutical companies hide or distort unwelcome findings. In an attempt to tackle the problem, a group of researchers has this week (June 17) published a proposal in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) for an aggressive new approach: scientists and journals should themselves gather and print data that has come to light through other means, such as litigation or Freedom of Information Act requests.
Endorsed by both the BMJ and PLOS Medicine, the Restoring Invisible and Abandoned Trials (RIAT) initiative is the brainchild of Peter Doshi, a postdoc in comparative-effective research at Johns Hopkins University (JHU), who wanted to do something about the fact that only half of all clinical trials are published. Doshi and his colleagues have already gathered 178,000 pages of previously confidential trial data on several drugs that came into the public domain thanks to legal battles or the policies of the European Medicines Agency, which has been releasing trial data in response to requests since 2010.
If other researchers have access to similar amounts of data, Doshi and his colleagues have set out a plan of action for those willing to participate in RIAT. First, ...
