Public release date: 2-Aug-2010
– industry-funded trials reported positive outcomes in 85.4 percent of publications, compared with 50 percent for government-funded trials
Clinicaltrials.gov is a publicly available database that provides details of clinical trials. Researchers studied 546 drug trials listed at clinicaltrials.gov to determine if funding source was associated with published outcomes. Of the trials studied, 346 (63 percent) were primarily funded by industry, 74 (14 percent) by government, and 126 (23 percent) by nonprofit or nonfederal organizations. The researchers found that industry-funded trials reported positive outcomes in 85.4 percent of publications, compared with 50 percent for government-funded trials and 71.9 percent for organization-funded trials. Trials funded by nonprofit or nonfederal sources with industry contributions were also more likely to report positive outcomes than those without industry funding. In addition, industry-funded trials were less likely to be published within two years of completion than were trials with other funding sources.
