One promise fulfilled, much still to be done

摘要

This year, 2015, was the deadline for some pretty big promises. When these were made it must have seemed a long way off. In an article in the Lancet in 20041 and others set 2015 as the date when we hoped there would be "health information forall" (Lancet 2004;364:295-300). More prominently, 2015 was the deadline forthe UN millennium development goals. Now, with much achieved but of course still more to do, we are into the post-2015 development agenda. But one important promise for 2015 has been fulfilled. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) said that it would make publicly available the raw data from clinical trials of all newly approved drugs. And despite legal action from the drug industry (BMJ 2013;346:fl636) the EMA has pushed ahead, and the new policy is in place. It will be a little while longer (until mid-2016) before it takes full effect. And the EMA can still make restrictions and redactions to protect commercial confidentiality.