Drug giants fail to name compounds in trial database

[摘要] In a recent editorial in The New England Journal of Medicine, published onlineon the 23rd of May 2005, an international group of medical editors have charged leading pharmaceutical companies with deliberately acting against the spirit of recent legislation. The issue resolves around a database where pharmaceutical companies must publish details of all ongoing clinical trials. The database serves as an information point for patients. The problem lies with the factthat drug firms are registering meaningless phrases, such as investigative drug, instead of the names of drugs, thereby preventing patients getting accurate information.