A new register for clinical trial information
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* Michael D. Levy

I applaud David Hailey for recognizing that "Schering Health Care and Glaxo Wellcome have taken important steps in making information available about ongoing trials in which they are involved."1

Having recognized the need for global access to information, Glaxo Wellcome recently introduced a clinical trials register to ensure that as much information as possible is available to researchers and clinicians. The goal is to facilitate systematic review of late-stage clinical data and, ultimately, to improve patient care.

Researchers already have access to much clinical trial information because the submission of clinical trial reports to peer-reviewed journals has long been established as a means of subjecting data to the rigorous scrutiny of the medical community. However, not all data generated through the drug-development process are published, meaning that an unpublished pool of potentially valuable data exists.

Medical researchers and other health care professionals can access the clinical trials register through a password-protected area of the Glaxo Wellcome external R&D Web site ([www.glaxowellcome.ca](http://www.glaxowellcome.ca)). The site allows users to access our study protocols and unpublished late-stage clinical trial data when reviewing information on specific medications. The register will also make researchers aware of research in progress, thereby avoiding duplication of effort.

In addition to establishing and maintaining the register, we remain committed to publishing clinical trials in peer-reviewed journals. Each trial in the register will be assigned a unique identifier, which researchers can use to link each publication back to the original trial. Because a single trial may generate several publications, the unique identifier will help people reviewing the literature to identify specific trials and avoid duplication of trial data.

Because access to information about specific medications can improve patient care, Glaxo Wellcome has taken the lead in developing this clinical trials register for the use of medical researchers and clinicians. We encourage the rest of the research-based pharmaceutical industry to join us.

## Reference

1.  1. Hailey D. Scientific harassment by pharmaceutical companies: time to stop [commentary]. CMAJ 2000;162(2):212-3.
    
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