The requirement to disclose individual patient data in clinical studies will bring down the wall behind which the pharmaceutical industry hides the truth: the Kerkoporta is ajar

• Main Author: Gabriel Rada
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Medwave Estudios Limitada 2013-06-01
• Series: Medwave
• Online Access: http://www.mednet.cl/link.cgi/Medwave/Perspectivas/Editorial/5735

The pharmaceutical industry and investigators currently enjoy an unchecked power to make drugs appear safe or effective when they are not. This hinders the efforts of many academics that try to establish the truth and, even worse, puts people’s health at risk. The power of the industry lies mainly in using the many shortcomings of an outdated and fragile system of health knowledge construction, which is based on publishing the results of clinical studies in scholarly journals. The likelihood of manipulating the truth dramatically decreases, and may even disappear, if independent and objective researchers can access the original trial data. The All Trials campaign, initiated by British researchers and activists, gives us hope that this goal may be accomplished. We must join forces and make the best of an historical opportunity with immense future value.