[indices] IFPMA launches worldwide Clinical Trials Portal

["Rochat Carolyn" <rochatc@nbi-kzn.org.za>]

Geneva, September 21, 2005 - The International Federation of
Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations (IFPMA) today announced the
launch of its new IFPMA Clinical Trials Portal. Developed in conjunction with information technology leader IBM,it is the first internet search engine constructed specifically to link to on-line information
made available by the innovative pharmaceutical industry about
clinical trials worldwide.

The IFPMA Clinical Trial Portal, which represents more than 7
months work by pharmaceutical industry technical and regulatory experts, as
well as IBM consultants, currently contains more that 250,000 links. The Portal URL is: www.ifpma.org/clinicaltrials.html

Dr. Daniel Vasella, Chairman and CEO of Novartis and President
of the IFPMA, said:
"Today, IFMPA is launching the first international web portal,
to provide doctors, patients and their families with simple access to the most complete information on clinical trials of drugs and vaccines. The launch of this portal shows the pharmaceutical industry's
commitment to full transparency in the interest of patients
and healthcare professionals."

The Portal's search engine has been programmed to access relevant on-line sources of clinical trial information. These include individual
pharmaceutical company sites, sites run by third parties working on behalf of these companies,pharmaceutical industry association
resources, such as the US pharmaceutical industry association
(PhRMA) site www.clinicalstudyresults.org and government sites which
routinely carry details of industry trials, such as the US National Library of Medicine's www.clinicaltrials.gov .

Other on-line clinical trial information resources, such as
the European Union's planned Europharm facility, may be linked to as and when they become available.

The Portal allows two broad types of information to be
searched for. One is listings(registries) of on-going clinical trials, providing access to basic information, including:
brief title, description in lay terms, trial phase, trial type
(e.g. interventional), trial status, trial purpose (treatment / diagnosis / prevention),intervention type (e.g. drug / vaccine),
condition or disease, key eligibility criteria (including
gender & age), location of trial and contact information.

The other broad category of information to which the Portal
provides links is the results of completed clinical trials, which are made available in a standard, non-promotional,summary format by various on-line databases."

Full press release at:http://www.ifpma.org/clinicaltrials.html 

 
Carolyn Rochat

Head: Information

National Bioproducts Institute

Durban

South Africa


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