Discussing AllTrials on the BBC Daily Politics today

June 19th, 2013 by Ben Goldacre in alltrials campaign, publication bias | 4 Comments »

I’m on the BBC2 show Daily Politics today at 12:40pm with Grant Shapps and Andy Burnham, discussing the alltrials.net campaign, and the problem of trial results being withheld from doctors, researchers, and patients. Here’s a brief film they made on the subject.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22957195


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In case there’s any doubt on the evidence, here’s my evidence to the Parliamentary Science and Technology Select Committee hearing on the topic:

My evidence to the Science and Tech Select Committee inquiry on missing trial data

And here’s the excellent alltrials.net briefing note:

www.alltrials.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Missing-trials-briefing-note.pdf

AllTrials is now supported by over 50,000 individuals, GSK, almost all the professional academic and medical bodies, and over 100 patient groups, representing more than a million people in total.


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4 Responses



  1. Joe Choi said,

    June 28, 2013 at 4:58 am

    Would disclosure laws be an adequate solution? www.legalmatch.com/law-library/article/doctors-duty-to-disclose.html

  2. JohanBenesch said,

    June 28, 2013 at 4:31 pm

    What is an Adaptive Trial Design?
    Saw I report from Tufts on this did not become a lot wiser:
    www.aptivsolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/TuftsCSDD_Adaptive-Design-Trials-Sr-Mgmt-Brief_May2013.pdf

  3. Robert Hibbs said,

    June 30, 2013 at 4:50 pm

    What if – the public had a web site where they could find a trial disclosure rating for each drug? What if – patients questioned their doctors when prescribe a poorly rated drug and asked them why they prescribed it and what information they based their conclusion on? What if – the doctors started challenging the pharmaceutical reps?

    All companies react to any issue that could affect their earnings. Give the public some solid information about the meds they take, and then things will change.

  4. stbrown6885 said,

    August 13, 2013 at 11:30 am

    JohanBenesch,

    the best definition of an Adaptive clinical trial is a shortcut. The basic premise being that if you think your results in one phase or trials are going well enough you simply add the required extra people and change your protocol to be classed as a trial in the next phase.
    So if you are doing a phase 1 trial and all is safe etc, you quickly recruit some of the required patient population and make it a phase II trial. Thus saving time and money.
    This is coming from something of a layperson but i’m 95% sure that covers all the important points.