European Clinical Trials

Arguments For European Clinical Trials Registration

A lobby has recently gone up for clinical trials in Europe to go through registration. While any and all legitimate clinical trials in the world are generally registered somewhere, there is no central governing medical or legal body in Europe where clinic trials may be registered. The main thrust of the argument of those who are for a centralized list of clinical trials is that the tests may be conducted with a greater degree of safety and security.

One of the first good points about a centralized system for registration is that the safety factor increases greatly for the people going through the tests. Standardized measures of medical safety may be established, and certain criteria must be passed by registering clinics to ensure that their patients undergoing the test are not exposed to anything that may cause them lasting harm. This is important because currently under normal circumstances, a simple waiver by a patient undergoing the clinical test may actually be sufficient grounds in a court of law to disallow a malpractice lawsuit if the clinic's staff, equipment, or whatever other factors may prove to be either incompetent or substandard. With established safeguards and standards set, the potential for abuse is diminished.

Another strong point arguing in favor of clinical trial registration in Europe is the easy availability of information from a centralized source. Currently the registration is at an immediate state or county level in Europe so that if another person wishes to track down and monitor the status of a certain clinical trial, he would first have to pinpoint the area of Europe where it is being conducted, then proceed to contact the local authorities for the registration. Needless to say, a researcher at that point would also be subject to whatever local laws apply to obtaining information about the clinic's testing procedures. With a centralized body of registration, the information can be accessed easily from anywhere in Europe and by anyone who wishes to view the status quo of the trials.

Most importantly, the details and results of the trials are likewise available as public knowledge. While patents for new medical products and procedures will still apply to the clinic conducting the test if it's successful, at the very least the presence of a centralized body that makes the entire process publicly available will prevent the possibility of a single clinic monopolizing something as important as, for example, a sure fire medicinal cure for most forms of cancer. Medical knowledge is far too important to the public at large to hold back breakthrough information for the sake of making a huge profit. A centralized registration system for European clinical trials will ensure that this does not happen.

Lastly, for the sake of the Clinics actually conducting tests, a centralized registration body also offers an advantage in the legal sense. As long as they are registered, the clinics conducting the trial will be entitled to full patents on their breakthroughs. This lessens the possibility of any industrial espionage, where a rival clinic may steal their information and use it for their own ends simply by beating the original clinic to filing a legal and binding patent on the breakthrough. While with a centralized registration system other rival clinics can actually access their research findings at any time, the clinic that initially conducts the research and registers with the central body will always get first dibs on the patent.