The IFPMA Clinical Trial Portal is a major pharmaceutical industry initiative designed to increase the transparency of clinical trials by providing a convenient "one-stop-shop" for published clinical trial information. It helps to fulfill the commitment made by the research-based pharmaceutical industry in its Joint Position on the Disclosure of Clinical Trial Information via Clinical Trial Registries and Databases, issued in January 2005 and updated November 2008. This joint statement was developed by the IFPMA, the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations(EFPIA, the Japan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (JPMA), the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) and Canada’s Research-Based Pharmaceutical Companies (R&d), to provide a coherent industry blueprint for improving clinical trial transparency.
The IFPMA Clinical Trial Portal is a single entry point allowing healthcare professionals to search for comprehensive information on clinical trials. Patients and physicians can search quickly and easily on-going clinical trials (registry) or results of completed trials (database) conducted by the international research-based pharmaceutical industry.
IFPMA Clinical Trial Portal provides links to the following sources:
ClinicalStudyResults.org, ClinicalTrials.gov, Current Controlled Trials, Japan Pharmaceutical Information Center, Pharmaceutical Industry Clinical Trials database.
It provides the following basic search features: Search by Medical Condition and Drug Name, Language interfaces (En, Es, Fr, De, Jp), Glossary and Easy Explanation of Medical Expressions, Geographical Search.
It also allows the user, through my Portal, to define specific search queries, say trials for a particular disease in a particular country, and then request an e-mail alert, which will be sent every time a relevant new clinical trial is posted.
Improving the portal
Since the Portal was launched in September 2005, the IFPMA has worked to expand its functionality and ease-of-use. Improvements subsequently added to the Portal include four additional language interfaces, plus features such as spelling suggestion, synonyms, search by trial location and e-mail alert. The IFPMA has also created a technology package that allows access to the Portal to be integrated into others websites, in other languages. This was pioneered in the Swedish language medicine information site www.fass.se.