Monday, July 12, 2004

3 Senators Seeking Details for a Drug-Trial Database
July 9 New York Times story - "Three Democratic senators who have already expressed interest in creating a required database of clinical drug trials asked federal regulators yesterday to outline what additional financing and enforcement mechanisms would be needed to create such a database. The three - Senators Tim Johnson of South Dakota, Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts and Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut - made the request in a letter sent to the heads of the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health. In the letter, the senators asked what could be done to either improve an existing government-run database, expand it or create a new one, so that drug makers would be required to post both the existence of a drug trial and its results..." [Viewing New York Times resources requires registration, which is free]. See also the ClinicalTrials.gov, which "provides regularly updated information about federally and privately supported clinical research in human volunteers."