GlaxoSmithKline to reveal more drug secrets from clinical trials
GLAXOSMITHKLINE, criticised in the past for keeping important information about its medicines to itself, is to lift the lid on more of its drug data secrets.
Three months after GSK was fined $3bn (£1.8bn) for fraud in the US, where prosecutors accused it of concealing safety issues, chief executive Andrew Witty said yesterday that detailed data from its clinical trials would be made available to other researchers.
That would include anonymised patient-level results that sit behind clinical trials of approved and failed drugs.
The move, a first for a major pharmaceutical company, may prompt others to follow suit. GSK believes opening its data stores to outsiders will help in the hunt for new drugs, as well as ending suspicions that the industry has secrets to hide.
“I’d be a bit surprised if, in two years, we were the only company doing this. Whether or not you are going to see other companies act in six weeks, I have no idea,” Witty said.
Britain’s biggest drug maker will set up an independent panel of experts to review requests submitted by researchers, which will then be vetted for scientific merit.
The new system will start at the beginning of next year.