The U.S. National Institutes of Health failed to ensure that results of roughly half of clinical trials funded by the agency — both those conducted by its own scientists and outside researchers — were reported to a federal database during a recent two-year period, a new government review has found.
Of the 72 trials funded by the NIH, results for just 35 studies were reported in 2019 and 2020 to ClinicalTrials.gov, a federal repository for information on studies. But the agency did not ensure that researchers running 37 trials complied with reporting requirements. NIH researchers ran 57% of the studies that were reported, and 43% of those not reported.
Drilling down, the researchers who ran the 37 trials for which results were not reported either failed to submit their findings altogether or did so after required deadlines, according to the review, which was conducted by the Office of Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Of the 72 trials reviewed, there were an equal number that were run by NIH and outside researchers.
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