We all marvel at the improvements in medicine over the past 50 years or more. Quite often - it seems almost weekly at times - companies announce the wonders of their latest clinical trial. However, seldom do these companies reveal the raw data on which they have based their conclusions as to the efficacies of the latest wonder drug. Without this raw data, companies are asking us to “take our word for it". Furthermore, companies seldom release the results of failed clinical trials.
But last week there was a glimmer of hope that this process may be changing. Johnson & Johnson has announced that it was making all of its clinical trial data available to scientists around the world. And it has retained an independent organization, Yale University Open Data Access Project, or YODA, to fully oversee the release of the data. The head of YODA has said, "Everything in the company’s clinical research vaults, including unpublished raw data, will be available for independent review".
Let's see how it goes.
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