Web Portal Offers Fast Search of Trial Data

A new website has been launched that is designed to increase the transparency of industry-sponsored clinical trials of new medicines by providing a faster and more-precise search, available in five languages.

The portal was developed by the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations (IFPMA, Geneva, Switzerland) in cooperation with IBM Corp. (White Plains, NY, USA). This is the first Internet search engine constructed to link to online information about ongoing and completed clinical trials sponsored by researched-based pharmaceutical companies worldwide. Users can search for clinical trial information in German, French, Japanese, and Spanish, as well as English. Depending on the pattern of use, additional languages may be added later.

"Furthermore,” announced Dr. Harvey E. Bale, director general of the IFPMA, "since many people are unfamiliar with medical expressions, we have improved the search facility so that it suggests synonyms for medical conditions and helps to correct misspelled words, including the names of medicines.” The extended reach now allows a search for trials corresponding both to the term entered by a layperson and the term's synonyms. According to Dr. Bale, multiple criteria searches are now easier as are searches by geographical area. "In this way, anyone can program the search engine to look for trials which are underway in the area where you live, in the disease that interests you.”

The amount of clinical trial information accessible via the IFPMA portal has increased from 26,000 pages to more than 88,000 pages, and this number continues to climb. The number of linking sites has also increased, from 10 to 15. These linking sites include pharmaceutical company sites, pharmaceutical industry association resources, and U.S. governmental sites, such as the U.S. Library of Medicine. Other resources, such as the European Union's planned Europharm facility, will be linked as soon as they become available.

The IFPMA is a global nonprofit non-governmental organization representing research-based pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and vaccine companies and national industry associations in developed and developing countries.



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