Launch of the international clinical trials registry platform (ICTRP)

The World Health Organization has launched a new web-based clinical trial portal that allows researchers, health practitioners, funders, policy-makers, journalists and the general public to search multiple drug and medical device clinical trial registers worldwide from a single entry point.

The participating registers are all part of the WHO network of collaborating clinical trial registers, which is intended to provide a forum to exchange information and establish best practice for clinical trial registration. The registers in the network have agreed to prospectively register trials, are able to collect all 20 items in the WHO trial registration data set and have mechanisms in place to ensure the optimal quality of the data provided.

There are three primary registers, which can contribute data directly to the WHO search portal:
• Australian Clinical Trials Registry
• US-based ClinicalTrials.gov
• International Standard Randomised Controlled Trial Number Register (ISRCTN)
In addition there are five partner registers, which can only contribute data via one of the above primary registers, and five potential contributing registers, which are being assessed by the WHO'S registry platform secretariat.

Also announced this week was an upgrade to the IFPMA Clinical Trials Portal, which provides an easy-to-use way of searching for clinical trials information in English, French, German, Japanese and Spanish. With this new technology package, IFPMA can help other sites by providing a similar search capability in any language covered by the MedDRA or MeSH medical dictionaries.

Click here to be linked to the WHO Search Portal.

Links:
International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP)
WHO Trial Registration Data Set
IFPMA Press Release Swedish FASS Website
IFPMA clinical trials portal