Pfizer has announced an update of its clinical trial data access policy that will “simplify and broaden access to information gathered in Pfizer-sponsored clinical trials. The updated policy builds upon and expands the company’s established methods of clinical trial information sharing, including Pfizer’s long track record of submitting for publication results from all interventional clinical trials in patients and its pioneering efforts to provide clinical trial results and data to study participants.”
Key elements of Pfizer’s expanded policy (effective January 1, 2014) are:
* Pfizer’s INSPIIRE public web portal for investigator-initiated research (iirsubmission.pfizer.com) will offer qualified researchers a standard form and process for requesting access to anonymized patient-level data from Pfizer-sponsored trials of approved (or discontinued) products/indications posted on clinicaltrials.gov that have been complete for 24 months.
* An external Independent Review Panel will consider all requests denied or only partially approved by Pfizer and make a final decision.
* Pfizer will publish (on Pfizer.com) synopses of clinical study reports (CSRs) filed with regulatory agencies for approved products for which basic results are posted in the clinicaltrials.gov registry (dating back to September 2007). These CSR synopses will include summary results for all primary and secondary endpoints; any data that could be used to identify individual patients will be removed.
* Pfizer will produce and distribute lay-language summaries of clinical trial results to trial participants who wish to receive them, starting with trials that begin enrolling in 2014, in countries where regulations permit.
* Pfizer is piloting the use of “Blue Button™” technology (launched by the U.S. Departments of Veterans Affairs and Health and Human Services) to enable Pfizer trial participants to download their own electronic clinical data collected in the trial.
According to Pfizer, their expanded clinical data access policy “also reinforces the company’s current practice of submitting for publication manuscripts for all interventional clinical trials in patients, regardless of outcomes, within 18 months of study completion, and the company’s commitment to register and post summary results for interventional human clinical trials to clinicaltrials.gov in the United States and to registries outside the United States as required.”
The full version of Pfizer’s expanded policy, the clinical data request form, the searchable CSR database, the Independent Review Panel membership roster and charter, and more information, including Frequently Asked Questions, are available at http://www.pfizer.com/TrialDataandResults.
