The lowdown: Jeffrey Drazen has accused Merck, Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline of making it difficult to search the National Institute's of Health's ClinicalTrials.gov database for information because they haven't provided the drug names. His criticisms are based on a review of the information from 10 companies posted on clinicaltrials.gov conducted by its director, Deborah Zarin. Drug names are missing in 90% of the 132 Merck trials reviewed, 53% of the 55 GSK trials and 36% of the 75 Pfizer studies. Companies say that these omissions are for competitive reasons. The criticism comes as the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) proposed details of the criteria they expect to be applied to databases. They are asking for 20 disclosures, including sponsor details, study size and what each study is designed to evaluate. Last year, the ICMJE responded to calls for transparency in clinical trials by demanding the registration of trials that are submitted for publication. The policy applies to all trials that start after 1 July 2005 and the deadline to meet this is 13 September.
The lowdown: Although the decision by the European Court of Justice is frustrating for pharmaceutical companies, it's better than a negative decision. GSK had restricted supplies of sumatriptan (Imigran), lamotrigine (Lamictal) and salmeterol (Serevent) to stop traders buying excess stocks in Greece and re-importing them to markets such as the United Kingdom, where prices are higher. Greek pharmaceutical wholesalers challenged GSK's moves, and Greece's competition commission referred the case to the Court of Justice. As a preliminary ruling last year said that GSK's restrictions did not necessarily represent abuse of a dominant position because the drugs were being moved back across borders, many expected the Court of Justice to rule in GSK's favour. But the Court decided that this decision is outside of its jurisdiction.
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