15th May 2013

Today the new head of pharmaceutical company Lilly UK Jean-Michel Cosséry said that patients don’t want companies like his to spend their money sharing “old data.” These “old data” are, of course, the results on which all treatments in current use are based! Perhaps he is hoping that AllTrials can be headed off into a siding, like all previous attempts to establish transparency.

A committee of MEPs will soon vote on proposals that could increase transparency of clinical trials. However, there are 350 lobbyists for the pharmaceutical industry at the European Parliament. MEPs are hearing Cosséry’s arguments against transparency (and others) every day. We have until 29th May to make sure they hear our arguments, that

  • The trust of patients who have volunteered for clinical trials is betrayed when findings generated by their participation are locked away
  • Incomplete information means doctors could make bad treatment decisions and miss opportunities for good medicine
  • Researchers don’t know what was found in previous trials, or even that some trials happened, so trials are repeated unnecessarily

If you are in Europe:

The committee looking at the Clinical Trials Regulation has 67 MEPs from 22 different European countries. Please write to the MEP(s) from your country asking them to vote in favour of increased transparency in the Clinical Trials Regulation. Their names, the countries they represent and their email addresses can be found here http://www.europarl.europa.eu/committees/en/envi/members.html#menuzone You can see some  letters people have written to their MEPs here in case they’re useful. Please put your address on the letter so they know where you are from. Let us know if you have written to them and if you get a response or if you have any questions.

If you are not in Europe:

We know these kinds of discussions are going on with every regulator around the world. Please talk to us about how AllTrials can take off in every country.