Asset managers are teaming up with a UK nonprofit campaign to get drug companies to release their clinical trial data, reports Ed Silverman over at Pharmalot.
He notes that this group of 85 asset and pension managers — who manage a total $3.8 trillion — plans to meet with drug makers in which they invest to convince them to register their clinical trials and report results. This is in conjunction with Sense About Science's AllTrials campaign in the UK that aims to encourage greater transparency and enable independent researchers to verify results, Silverman adds.
Recently, he says, there have been concerns that trial data for some products haven't fully published or disclosed. Though some companies have begun to release trial data, critics say such efforts are rare.
Helena Vines Fiestas, the head of sustainability research at BNP Paribas Investment Partners, tells Pharmalot that such opacity affects not only decisions made by regulators and physicians, but also investors.
"We think if the companies become more transparent and take the issue around auditing and reports more seriously that the decisions made by analysts can be more closely aligned with reality," she adds.