The need for better information on drug trials

info-fetishist (a blog) has an interesting posting on the impact of commercial interests on the quality of the information publicly available on pharmaceuticals. What we should have, and will not get, is a system in which all drug trials are reported to the Food and Drug Administration, in which they are not only reviewed a priori for appropriate methodology but a posteriori to assure fair reporting, and in which all are published and made available to researchers and the medical profession.

This would not be inexpensive, and the Bush administration did violence to the FDA budget in a number of ways. It would also require new regulatory legislation. Do you suppose the drug industry likes to be regulated? Do you think the industry's political contributions fail to buy it influence in the Congress. We may need it, but I bet we don't get it!