Joint statement on public disclosure of results from clinical trials

Signatories on 18 May 2017

Indian Council of Medical Research, Norwegian Research Council, U.K. Medical Research Council, Médecins Sans Frontières, Epicentre, PATH, CEPI, Institut Pasteur, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Wellcome Trust

The signatories of this joint statement affirm that the prospective registration and timely public disclosure of results from all clinical trials is of critical scientific and ethical importance. Furthermore timely results disclosure reduces waste in research, increases value and efficiency in use of fund sand reduces reporting bias, which should lead to better decision-making in health.

Within 12 months of becoming a signatory of this statement, we each pledge to develop and implement a policy with mandated timeframes for prospective registration and public disclosure of the results of clinical trials that we fund, co-fund, sponsor or support. We each agree to monitor registration and endorse the development of systems to monitor results reporting on an ongoing basis. We agree to share challenges and progress in the monitoring of these policies. We agree that transparency is important and therefore the outputs from the monitoring process will be publicly available.

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A note on open access policies
We are all supporters of open access policies, and consider that publications describing clinical trial results should be open access from the date of publication, wherever possible. Open access fees should be included in clinical trial budget requests, if necessary.

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