NEWS: Access to info on industry-sponsored clinical trials

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Access to info on industry-sponsored clinical trials



Sep 30, 2005



Zosia Chustecka

Geneva, Switzerland - Information about industry-sponsored clinical

trials is now easier to access, with the launch of a new internet

portal site from the International Federation of Pharmaceutical

Manufacturers & Associations (IFPMA) that links to many other

websites already containing such data.

The site, www.ifpma.org/clinicaltrials, provides doctors and patients

with " simple access to the most complete information on clinical

trials of drugs and vaccines, " says Dr Vasella, president of

the IFPMA and chair and CEO of Novartis. Comprising a search engine

developed in conjunction with IBM, it currently contains more than

250 000 links, including those run by pharmaceutical companies

themselves as well as those run by third parties and governments.

Further work on the site is under way, and there are plans to link to

new information resources as they become available as well as to

simplify the search terms to make it more accessible to individuals

who may have a limited knowledge of medical terminology.

The pharmaceutical industry has recently come in for severe

criticism, in the wake of the Vioxx (rofecoxib, Merck) withdrawal but

also from other controversies, such as the data on suicide risk with

antidepressants. One of the most damaging charges leveled at the

industry has been that of secrecy—that companies don't declare all

results from all clinical trials and in particular are not

forthcoming about results that show their drugs in a less favorable

light. Vasella says: " The launch of this new portal shows the

pharmaceutical industry's commitment to full transparency in the

interests of patients and health professionals. "

Clinical trials in rheumatoid arthritis

The new portal allows two broad types of information to be searched

for—ongoing clinical trials and results from completed trials. A

search for the topic " rheumatoid arthritis " (RA) turned up about 40

links for results and more than 1000 for ongoing clinical trials.

Many of these links—but not all—were to documents contained on the

US National Library of Medicine site www.clinicaltrials.gov. Some of

the hits on the results search were old (eg, a celecoxib phase 2

study completed in 1996), but some were very detailed, containing

potentially useful material (eg, results from a trial using

intravenous parecoxib followed by oral valdecoxib in patients

undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting). The ongoing clinical-

trials search turned up, unsurprisingly, many studies exploring the

use of new investigational compounds, such as belimumab (Lymphostat-

B, Human Genome Sciences), Humax-CD4 (Genmab), and the antisense

oligonucleotide ISIS-104838 (Isis Pharmaceuticals), but it also

unearthed studies exploring new concepts. For instance, one ongoing

study involving abatacept (Orencia, Bristol-Myers Squibb), a novel T-

cell costimulation inhibitor that hasn't been launched yet for the

treatment of RA, is looking at the prevention of RA. This trial

involves patients with undifferentiated arthritis who are at high

risk of developing RA; the inclusion criteria include clinical

synovitis in two or more joints, duration of disease of less than 18

months, testing positive for cyclic citrullinated peptides, and no

prior use of disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) or

biologics. This trial, as well as some of the others, gives contact

numbers for further information, which would be useful for both

physicians and patients interested in participating.

http://www.jointandbone.org/viewArticle.do?primaryKey=571251