Wellcome director reaffirms trust’s openness campaign

A future in which the results of all clinical trials are known and published is “unequivocally” realistic, Jeremy Farrar has said.

The director of the Wellcome Trust, who took up the role on 1 October, said: “We’re a long way down that process now and we will go further down that process. I think that’s where everybody would want to get to.” He was speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on 8 October.

Farrar noted that his predecessor Mark Walport made a stand on openness in research. “I hope to take that further,” he added. “Drug companies are in a difficult position—they need to protect their intellectual property—but the public needs to know all of the results that are important to them, both how effective something is and any adverse side effects.”