Science council sets out plan for clinical trials

The Wissenschaftsrat, a council of senior scientists that advises Germany’s government, has called for more funding and infrastructure to support “science-driven” clinical trials.

Germany is a valued location for pharmaceutical companies to carry out drug trials, but not-for-profit and academic trials struggle to get support, the Wissenschaftsrat said in a statement on 22 October. To combat this, the council recommends that the federal education ministry and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Germany’s largest public research funder, tweak existing funding instruments to provide more support for non-commercial clinical trials.

Lengthy and resource-intensive clinical trials—those that last for eight to 10 years and cost between €5 million and €10m—should be eligible for support through a competitive process, the council said. These trials should focus on improving standards, therapies, products and processes. They should not focus on mere aspects of a larger practice-relevant question, the council explained, saying that projects must address big questions in clinical treatments entirely.