Sanofi moves to make clinical trial data more readily available

Sanofi will make data from clinical trials it has sponsored more widely available to other researchers this year, the company has announced.

Under the new plans, study data and related documents regarding products approved by US and EU regulatory agencies on or after January 1st 2014 will be made available to researchers and patients on request.

This supports the Principles for Responsible Sharing of Clinical Trial Data guidelines, jointly published by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America and the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) in July 2013.

Sanofi will continue to submit for publication the results from all the studies it sponsors.

Christopher Viehbacher, EFPIA president and Sanofi chief executive, commented: "Finding new therapies can be accelerated by fully sharing the successful and unsuccessful research results with other researchers."

He added he hoped academics would follow the lead set by the private pharmaceutical sector in data sharing.