Patient groups urge sanctions on clinical trial transparency failures

Sanctions must be introduced against researchers who fail to register their clinical trials or report the results, patient groups have said.

In a letter sent on 20 August to Norman Lamb, the chair of the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee, 12 groups ask him to write to the Health Research Authority to call for a “clear timetable” for sanctions against researchers and their institutions to be phased in.

The HRA is consulting on its approach to trial transparency and is expected to publish a strategy—dubbed Make It Public—in the near future. The Science and Technology Committee said in October 2018 that the agency needed powers to implement sanctions and increase clinical trial transparency.