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Bristol cable: Medical research in Bristol violates international transparency guidelines

Research by TranspariMED and the Bristol Cable shows the university fails to meet requirements to publish medical trial data.

The University of Bristol has conducted over a dozen clinical trials in human volunteers, but not posted any of its results on dedicated trial registries, an investigation by the Bristol Cable has found. Its failure to make the results of its medical research easily accessible violates existing European Union and World Health Organization guidelines and threatens to slow down the development of new treatments and cures.

The investigation shows that on one platform alone, the university is listed as the sponsor of 14 drug trials involving over 1,600 healthy volunteers and patients. Three trials that ended in 2009, 2011 and early 2016 have still not posted results there. Most of the remaining 11 trials also seem to have been completed, but are still listed as ‘ongoing’, suggesting that the university is not keeping its medical research records up to date.

Clinical trials conducted in human patients are the keystone of modern medicine. Typically, a clinical trial examines whether a new drug, medical device or procedure is safe and effective by investigating its effects in volunteers. Clinical trial registries were set up to ensure that everyone can see who is currently researching what, and what past trials have discovered. This avoids wasteful duplication of research efforts by different investigators, allows researchers to build on each others’ work, and provides doctors with quick access to the results of cutting-edge research.

Bristol University’s failure to adequately manage its registry entries undermines that system. For example, a trial investigating whether the drug mirtazapine can help people with treatment-resistant depression appears to have been completed in February 2016 at the latest, but is still listed as “ongoing” on the European registry. University of Bristol researchers planned to give either the drug or a placebo to at least 400 people suffering from depression.
https://thebristolcable.org/2017/07...olates-international-transparency-guidelines/

So it's not just Crawley who can get away without publishing results...