Over the past decade, the number of clinical trials for drugs that were funded by the National Institutes of Health has dropped while the number of studies financed by drug companies has risen substantially. This is not a surprise, given the diminished NIH budget, but one researcher said this is detrimental to public health.
Overall, the number of trials registered on ClinicalTrials.gov, the federal database, doubled from 9,321 in 2006 to 18,400 in 2014, according to a research letter published in the latest issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Breaking that down, the number of industry-funded trials during that period rose 43 percent, while studies that were funded by the NIH fell by 24 percent. At the same time, financing from other federal agencies rose 29 percent and funding from still other sources — such as individuals, universities and organizations — rose by 227 percent.
About the Author Reprints
