Has PATH done its work?

[Richard Lehman]

Dear All,

I set up PATH as an open Google group in November 2011 to bring together all the people I knew - mostly in the UK and USA - who might want to join together in the fight for access to all data from human trials. Although this had been identified as a moral imperative for two decades, notably by Iain Chalmers, at that point it seemed as if we were as far as ever from making it a reality. So I nervously set up a Google group in response to suggestions from Ben Goldacre and Trish Greenhalgh.

Now, thanks to the efforts of many in this group, the argument is won. The Alltrials campaign has been a runaway success in the UK and is garnering increasing international support. Nobody within industry is coming up with any plausible arguments to favour data secrecy, except those based on their own commercial interests. Since this happened, PATH has gone quiet. That is because the real action is happening elsewhere.

The fight is now going be be a high-level war of attrition lasting many years. We all need to keep active and positive if the new dawn is going to turn into a real transformation within medicine. But I think PATH - an open Google group with all its glitches - may now have served its purpose.

So I suggest we close down PATH and replace it with something better. Any ideas?

Richard

[JIM MURRAY]

I'm afraid the fight is not yet won - I attach the text of my article, published today in Euractiv - see

http://www.euractiv.com/health/european-parliament-clinical-tri-analysis-518898

You can find out more on the subject on my blog:

http://openmedicineeu.blogactiv.eu/

Please dissemintate the article anywhere it might be helpful.

Best wishes

Jim Murray

Richard

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[Tom Jefferson]

Jim, you are quite right in being cautious.

A well wirtten piece, I'll cite it in my blog

Tom

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Dr Tom Jefferson
www.attentiallebufale.it

[Richard Lehman]

Many thanks Jim. This is an excellent and extremely useful summary of the postion in Europe, as industry regroups and tries out its political muscle to reverse the progress of recent months.

In the USA too the Institute of Medicine is throwing its prestige behind an attempt to delay and limit the sharing of data, under the guise of a collaborative discussion which could go on for two years or more:

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/industry-group-supports-uniform-approach-to-transparency-of-clinical-trial-data-201651151.html

In my message suggesting a winding up of PATH I stated that the argument has been won, but that the fight will need to go on for many years. It needs to be fought on a new level and I think this needs a strong international organization and coordination of effort, on a much larger scale than PATH. I think there will be some important moves in this direction very shortly.

All best,

Richard

["Peter C. Gøtzsche"]

Dear Richard,

I have no good ideas but many thanks for setting up this list. I think you are right that it has now served its purpose.

bw

Peter

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Peter C. Gøtzsche, Professor, Director, MD, DrMedSci, MSc
Nordic Cochrane Centre, Rigshospitalet, Dept. 7811
2100 Copenhagen Ø, Denmark
Visiting address: Tagensvej 22, 1st floor
e-mail: p...@cochrane.dk, Tel: +45 35 45 71 12, Fax: +45 35 45 70 07
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