Roche to expand access to clinical trial data

Roche has announced that it will be making efforts to increase the accessibility of its clinical trial data to third-party researchers, in response to rising pressure on the pharmaceutical industry for greater transparency.

The company will be amending its data policies and will work with an independent body of experts to evaluate and approve requests for access anonymised patient-level data, a process that will come into effect later this year.

Additionally, Roche is committed to supporting the release of full clinical study reports for all its licensed medicines via regulatory authorities, making any CSRs that cannot be provided by these authorities available upon a researcher's request.

The firm is keen to open up access to its clinical data while simultaneously avoiding the risk of publishing misleading results or unintentionally causing public health scares.

Daniel O'Day, chief operating officer of Roche Pharma, said: "We believe we have found a way in which patient data can be provided to third party researchers in a legitimate environment that ensures patient confidentiality."

Last month, the company announced its financial results for 2012, during which it achieved group sales of 45.5 billion Swiss francs (32.26 billion pounds), up by four percent on the previous year.