Medicine: Major Medical Journals Will Require Registration of Trials

From NYT. For those not locked into the depths of med school, here's the schpiel: in order for a company to get a drug approved by the FDA, they must take the drug through four stages to determine, first, toxicity, and then, efficacy. I learned about this process all too well when I worked for Phoenix Pharmacologics. Most of the time, these studies are funded by the company that produces the drug, which, sure, makes sense. But that also gives companies the power to say, "the result of this study we just did isn't good for us. throw it in the trash can" and nobody ever knows about it.

Now, if studies must be registered beforehand, companies will HAVE to report their clinical studies if they want their work to be published in a journal that anybody cares about. This isn't full proof, since, with online journal access, you could publish a drug study in the Podunk Journal of Crayfish Neuroeschatology and people could still access it, but the FDA is still going to notice the weird PJCN footnote while they're evaluating the study.

But this is good for you, as a consumer, since your doctor will know more about the true costs and benefits of the drugs they give you. If a drug is good, awesome. But if a drug can do bad things, and companies keep that under wraps? That's bad. This isn't astrophysics. So kudos to JAMA, NEJM, and co. for being smart!