“Ultimately everyone suffers due to incomplete trial reporting, as we all become patients at some stage in our lives,” Dr. Prayle says by email. “Non-publication of research findings means we potentially administer ineffective drugs to whole populations of patients, and we expose them to side effects of these drugs, wasting resources in the process.”
Another problem when trial results aren’t public is that failed experiments may be repeated, noted Nicholas Rasmussen, a researcher at the Charles Perkins Center for Chronic Disease in Sydney, Australia. This is particularly problematic when results of phase 3 studies aren’t fully disclosed, Rasmussen, who wasn’t involved in the study, says by email.
“If the results of unsuccessful trials are not published, especially phase 3 trials, the medical research community will not learn from mistakes,” Rasmussen says. “Harmful, non-beneficial experimental interventions may be tried on sick people again and again.”
