The European Medicine Agency announced last week that it would loosen its data-sharing rules, ScienceInsider reports.
The agency's draft rules, which has been criticized as too restrictive, only allowed researchers to view clinical trial data on their computer screens and prevented them from downloading, saving, and printing the data.
The agency now, ScienceInsider says, will let researchers download, save, and even print trial data, provided it is for academic and non-commercial purposes.
“This is a good move. It will mean researchers will be able to scrutinize, compare and share clinical trial information," Síle Lane from the UK group Sense about Science says in a statement. "Allowing researchers access to clinical trial information on-screen-only would have made their job impossible."
Still, some worry that other restrictive measures will remain in the data-sharing rules. The final text is to be ready in mid-July.