Ben Goldacre questions WHO director claims

Ben Goldacre questions WHO director claims

24th May 2013

This article was first published on Bdaily Business News and can read the full article here.

Dr Rüdiger Krech, WHO Director of Ethics and Social Determinants of Health,  speaking about the importance of transparency at the Sixty-Sixth World Health Assembly (WHA) in Geneva, argued that scientific journals do not publish trials that have not been registered on the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform.

When questioned on Twitter about this claim, Ben Goldacre affirmed that journals still publish unregistered trials, tweeting, “Dr Krech is disagreeing with the published evidence.”

In an email to Krech, who welcomed the discussion, Goldacre said, “Current evidence certainly shows poor compliance by journals checking for registration before publication. I think it’s important to recognise that there is a huge amount to be done here.”

Goldacre then called on the WHO to support the AllTrials campaign for governments, regulators and research bodies, to implement measures that would see all past and present clinical trials registered and fully reported.