Bristol University pledges clinical trial registry cleanup
A joint investigation by TranspariMED and the Bristol Cable shows that the University of Bristol has not posted summary results for a single clinical trial onto registries. On the main European trial registry, the university is listed as the sponsor of 14 drug trials involving over 1,600 healthy volunteers and patients. Three trials that ended in 2009, 2011 and early 2016 have still not posted results there. Most of the remaining 11 trials also seem to have been completed, but are still listed as ‘ongoing’, suggesting that the university is not keeping its medical research records up to date.
On Clinicaltrials.gov, the main American registry, the university has registered 16 research projects; it has posted summary results for none of them.
Representatives of campaign groups Universities Allied for Essential Medicines and Just Treatment strongly criticized the university's performance. Senior academics Sir Iain Chalmers and Tom Jefferson also weighed in, with the latter describing registry updates as a "no-brainer" and "easy to do".
A spokesperson for the university responded that Bristol had recently started adding results to the European registry. He also explained that until last year, "anyone could set up an account naming the University as the umbrella organisation" on Clinicaltrials.gov. The university has now assumed central control over those registry entries and is working to clean up its data, the spokesperson said.
The full article can be read on the website of the Bristol Cable, a local investigative journalism platform.