WHO's calls for more thorough clinical trial result disclosure welcomed by Germany's IQWiG

The World Health Organization (WHO) has made an official statement on the disclosure of clinical trial results by pharma companies, urging them to release this information to the public domain following concerns that negative results are kept private.

It encourages companies to establish a free, searchable register containing trial information that can be accessed by the public before the drug is marketed. The WHO believes the final results of the trial should be available within 18 months of its end, as well as published in a peer-review journal in the same timeframe.

The WHO said in its draft statement: “Concerns have been raised that there may be selective publication of trials dependent on their results, with particular concern that trial results which may be viewed as ‘negative,’ are less likely to be submitted, or accepted, for publication in the scientific literature or made public in other ways.”