The British government is promising to toughen laws to prevent drug companies from withholding data from clinical trials.

Dawn Primarolo, the UK minister of public health, says that both European and British law should be amended to force the timely disclosure of any information relevant to assessing drug risk. She also says that the government will seek clearly defined penalties for non-compliance.

Last week, regulators ended a four-year investigation into the British pharmaceutical firm GlaxoSmithKline without bringing prosecution. The company allegedly failed to provide data related to suicide risk for children taking its antidepressant drug Seroxat (sold in the United States as Paxil). But it did not violate laws in place at the time, investigators say.