Registration of Clinical Trials: Is It Really Needed?

Background And Aims: Withholding findings of clinical trials for publication or presentation to the regulatory authorities is a major concern. We aimed to address the importance of clinical trial registration and whether it is needed or not.

Discussion: For ethical conduct of clinical trial, registration is an important but debatable issue due to proprietary interest of the pharmaceutical industry. Over the years, investigating agencies uncovered several instances of misconduct during the clinical trial. The International committee of medical journal editors requires registration of trial methodology, but does not require registration of trial results; however, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Amendments does require researchers to register results.

Conclusion: Prospective registration of clinical trial is mandatory for more transparent research and sustaining the validity of evidence based practice and availability of reliable data. Clinical trials registration has the potential to contribute substantially to improve clinical trial transparency and reducing publication bias and selective reporting.