Accessibility of clinical study reports supporting medicine approvals: a cross-sectional evaluation

OBJECTIVES

Clinical study reports (CSRs) are highly detailed documents that play a pivotal role in medicine approval processes. Though not historically publicly available, in recent years, major entities including the European Medicines Agency (EMA), Health Canada, and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have highlighted the importance of CSR accessibility. The primary objective herein was to determine the proportion of CSRs that support medicine approvals available for public download as well as the proportion eligible for independent researcher request via the study sponsor.

STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING

This cross-sectional study examined the accessibility of CSRs from industry-sponsored clinical trials whose results were reported in the FDA-authorized drug labels of the top 30 highest-revenue medicines of 2021. We determined (1) whether the CSRs were available for download from a public repository, and (2) whether the CSRs were eligible for request by independent researchers based on trial sponsors' data sharing policies.

RESULTS

There were 316 industry-sponsored clinical trials with results presented in the FDA-authorized drug labels of the 30 sampled medicines. Of these trials, CSRs were available for public download from 70 (22%), with 37 available at EMA and 40 at Health Canada repositories. While pharmaceutical company platforms offered no direct downloads of CSRs, sponsors confirmed that CSRs from 183 (58%) of the 316 clinical trials were eligible for independent researcher request via the submission of a research proposal. Overall, 218 (69%) of the sampled clinical trials had CSRs available for public download and/or were eligible for request from the trial sponsor.

CONCLUSION

CSRs were available from 69% of the clinical trials supporting regulatory approval of the 30 medicines sampled. However, only 22% of the CSRs were directly downloadable from regulatory agencies, the remaining required a formal application process to request access to the CSR from the study sponsor.

Impact of investigator initiated trials and industry sponsored trials on medical practice (IMPACT): rationale and study design

Background

The German Research Foundation (DFG) and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) initiated large research programs to foster high quality clinical research in the academic area. These investigator initiated trials (IITs) cover important areas of medical research and often go beyond the scope of industry sponsored trials (ISTs). The purpose of this project was to understand to what extent results of randomized controlled IITs and ISTs have an impact on medical practice, measured by their availability for decisions in healthcare and their implementation in clinical practice. We aimed to determine study characteristics influencing a trial’s impact such as type of sponsor and place of conduct. In this article, we describe the rationale and design of this project and present the characteristics of the trials included in our study cohort.

Methods

The research impact of the following sub-cohorts was compared: German IITs (funded by DFG and BMBF or by other German non-commercial organizations), international IITs (without German contribution), German ISTs, and international ISTs. Trials included were drawn from the DFG−/BMBF-Websites, the German Clinical Trials Register, and from ClinicalTrials.gov. Research impact was measured as follows: 1) proportion of published trials, 2) time to publication, 3) proportion of publications appropriately indexed in biomedical databases, 4) proportion of openly accessible publications, 5) broadness of publication’s target group, 6) citation of publications by systematic reviews or meta-analyses, and 7) appearance of publications or citing systematic reviews or meta-analyses in clinical practice guidelines. We also aimed to identify study characteristics associated with the impact of trials.

Results

We included 691 trials: 120 German IITs, 200 International IITs, 171 German ISTs and 200 International ISTs. The median number of participants was 150, 30% were international trials and 70% national trials, 48% drug-trials and 52% non-drug trials. Overall, 72% of the trials had one pre-defined primary endpoint, 28% two or more (max. 36).

Conclusions

The results of this project deepen our understanding of the impact of biomedical research on clinical practice and healthcare policy, add important insights for the efficient allocation of scarce research resources and may facilitate providing accountability to the different stakeholders involved.

Challenges in developing drugs for pediatric CNS disorders: A focus on psychopharmacology

Many psychiatric and behavioral disorders manifest in childhood (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, autism spectrum disorder, etc.) and the opportunity for intervening early may attenuate full development of the disorder and lessen long term disability. Yet, pediatric drug approvals for CNS indications are limited, and pediatric testing generally occurs only after establishing adult efficacy, more as an afterthought rather than with the initial goal of developing the medication for a pediatric CNS indication. With pharmaceutical companies decreasing funding of their neuroscience research divisions overall, the prospects for moving promising investigational drugs forward into pediatrics will only decline. The goal of this review is to highlight important challenges around pediatric drug development for psychiatric disorders, specifically during clinical development, and to present opportunities for filling these gaps, using new strategies for de-risking investigational drugs in new clinical trial designs/models. We will first present the current trends in pediatric drug efficacy testing in academic research and in industry trials, we will then discuss the regulatory landscape of pediatric drug testing, including policies intended to support and encourage more testing. Obstacles that remain will then be presented, followed by new designs, funding opportunities and considerations for testing investigational drugs safely.