Student activists ramp up pressure on U.S. universities over missing clinical trial results

Volunteers with the student-led campaign group Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM) have rebooted their campaign to push U.S. universities, hospitals and pharma companies to publish clinical trial results as required by law.

Going forward, the group plans to additionally engage with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which is the regulator responsible for enforcing the law.

Targeting big universities with weak compliance

According to a report published by UAEM:

“We identified 39 academic and industry sponsors with reporting compliance below 95% and more than 30 overdue trials, based on data collected from the FDAAA TrialsTracker.”

“These sponsors included universities, hospitals, and companies, ranging from major corporations to large academic medical centers.”

UAEM activists wrote letters to the worst offenders, reminded them of their legal obligations, and requested them to make their missing clinical trial results public.

Several months later, the students re-assessed compliance and found that two academic institutions – Rutgers The State University of New Jersey and the Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Cincinnati – had achieved full compliance.

Since then, Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Cincinnati has dropped the ball again. It has failed to make public the results of two recently completed clinical trials, in violation of the law.

As the image above shows, if the FDA had been effectively enforcing the law, it could by now have collected over 85 million dollars from Cincinnati alone.

UAEM acknowledged that a robust evaluation of the impact of their latest campaign is not possible.

Call for the FDA to take action

The group called for stronger regulatory action by the FDA:

“Continued noncompliance among some sponsors highlights the need for stronger regulatory enforcement, rather than relying solely on voluntary or reputational pressure.”

Going forward, UAEM plans to expand its outreach to more universities, hospitals and pharma companies, and launch “advocacy campaigns directed at regulators such as the FDA.”

In May 2026, the FDA chased up thousands of missing results by sending letters to the institutions that had run the trails, but the FDA’s overall enforcement strategy remains unclear. To date, the FDA has failed to impose the fines set out by law.

How to get involved in UAEM’s campaign

TranspariMED was not involved in the recent UAEM action but fully supports it.

Till Bruckner, founder of TranspariMED, said:

“UAEM has long been the leading voice for medical research transparency in the United States, helping to drive strong improvements in clinical trial reporting, especially by universities.”

“A decade ago, only half of trial results were made public as required by U.S. law. Today, that figure stands at over 78%. Thanks to UAEM, thousands of trial results that would otherwise have been lost are now available to science, doctors and patients.”

“This is an excellent example of how a small group of committed individuals, working in their spare time, can make a real difference to improving medical care.”

UAEM is active in multiple countries across Asia, Europe, Latin America and North America.

Students who want to get involved with UAEM's campaign can join one of UAEM’s local chapters – or start one of their own.