OnCo
ideasIdea

No new trial approval until the sponsor has reported its old ones

Ethics committees should check whether a sponsor has published the results of its previous finished trials before approving the next one.

Ethics review has a legitimate interest in results reporting: participants consent partly on the promise that knowledge will be shared. Requiring sponsors to certify, and committees to verify via registry, that all trials completed more than two years ago have posted results, with approval withheld otherwise, would create the strongest incentive available without new legislation.

Hypothesis
Institutions adopting the gate will see completed-trial results posting exceed 95% within two years, and non-adopting peers will remain below 80%.
Rationale
Ethics committees already condition approval on prior conduct (for example investigator training). The World Medical Association's Declaration of Helsinki names results publication as an ethical duty.
What would test it
Pilot at five academic institutions with a shared registry lookup tool; compare posting rates with matched institutions.
Maturity
speculative
Who has to act
regulator
Cost to try
Small (under $1M)
Years to first evidence
2
Bottlenecks it attacks
  • Failures are hidden · Negative trials, failed drugs and abandoned programmes are rarely published, so the same mistakes are repeated.

Connected

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