How did this research funder achieve a 96% reporting rate for its clinical trials?

Many clinical trials are paid for by your taxes – but is that money well spent?

Globally, around half of all clinical trials end up as research waste because their results are never made public. Trial outcomes that remain invisible neither further science nor improve patient care.

A Belgian public funder now publishes a dashboard that tracks the progress and fate of its clinical trial portfolio.

The dashboard includes three key transparency metrics:

• Was the trial registered?

• Were its results made public?

• Were its results made public in a timely fashion? 

The data show that all trials were registered - and to date, nearly all results have been made public.

This illustrates that the dashboard is not just a visual gimmick. Beneath the surface, there is a system that is very successful at ensuring that public money is not wasted on science that remains invisible.

The transparency metrics form part of a wider dashboard that also tracks disease areas, patient recruitment, and a variety of publication types.

Meet the funder behind the dashboard

The dashboard is published by KCE Trials.

According to its website, KCE Trials is “a funding programme for non-commercial clinical trials financed by the Belgian public health authorities. The trials funded by KCE address issues that are usually neglected by industry despite their high societal importance.” 

Funders increasingly embrace trial transparency

Many other funders across Europe and in the United States are also stepping up their efforts to curb research waste.

For example, the UK Medical Research Council has long tracked whether the trials it funds are registered and reported. However, TranspariMED is not aware of any other funder that publishes an equivalent dashboard.

No safeguards at Gates Foundation

Meanwhile, some funders still appear to have no safeguards whatsoever in place. For example, as far as is known:

• The Italian Ministry of Health still does not even require trials to be registered and reported – let alone monitor whether its grantees actually do so.

• Gates Foundation has virtually no policies aimed at curbing research waste in clinical trials, and is does not appear to track the publication of results.

Raising the bar for funders worldwide

Till Bruckner, founder of TranspariMED, said:

“With this dashboard, KCE Trials has broken new ground in clinical trial transparency and raised the bar for all other research funders worldwide.”

“In any other area of public procurement, it is routine to check whether goods and services paid for by public money were actually delivered. For example, no self-respecting democratic government would pay for a bridge, but then fail to check whether the bridge was actually built.”

“Tax money invested in medical research must benefit the public. With this dashboard, KCE Trials can show Belgian taxpayers, patients and policy makers that the funds it manages are carefully tracked. This is especially important in a time of strong pressure on public budgets in general, and research funds in particular.”

TranspariMED is keen to hear about positive transparency initiatives by other research funders worldwide. If you see any promising innovations, please get in touch so that we can highlight them on this blog.