Clinical Trial Registry

During 2005, Novartis and other pharmaceutical companies unveiled major initiatives to improve disclosure of results of clinical trials. The move came amid legal challenges in the US – and calls from editors of 11 major medical journals for the creation of a public registry for clinical studies involving human patients.

That registry became reality in 2005 under the leadership of Daniel Vasella, M.D., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Novartis, in his capacity as President of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA). Fulfilling a pledge to provide an industry blueprint to improve clinical trial transparency, IFPMA launched a clinical trials portal offering access to online information concerning more than 250 000 clinical trials worldwide.

In 2003, Novartis had already established its own web-based registry, providing retrospective data on results of global and local clinical studies. At the end of 2005, the Novartis Clinical Trial Results Database (CTRD) included more than 250 trials. Novartis also provides information on trials of medicines to treat serious and life-threatening diseases, through an electronic registry sponsored by the US National Institutes of Health.

We believe that all trial results must be published – whether they are favorable or not. There are important public health benefits associated with making clinical trial information more widely available to healthcare practitioners and patients.