ideasIdea
Patient-level data from failed trials becomes open by default after two years
When a trial fails, the company has little commercial reason to keep the detailed data secret. Make sharing it the default rather than something researchers must beg for.
Platforms such as Vivli and YODA share individual participant data on request, but sponsors control access and failed trials are under-represented. Since a discontinued programme has little competitive value, a policy (via funders, journals and regulators) that participant-level data from terminated oncology programmes is deposited with open access after 24 months would unlock meta-analysis, biomarker work and methods research.
Hypothesis
Within three years, participant-level data from at least half of terminated phase 2 and 3 oncology programmes is available for download or streamlined access, up from a small minority today.
Rationale
Trial participants consented to advance knowledge; data locked after failure honours neither them nor the science. Trials with shared data generate multiple secondary publications.
What would test it
Adopt the policy at two major funders and one journal group; measure deposit rates and secondary analyses.
Maturity
early clinical
Who has to act
policy
Cost to try
Small (under $1M)
Years to first evidence
2
Bottlenecks it attacks
- Failures are hidden · Negative trials, failed drugs and abandoned programmes are rarely published, so the same mistakes are repeated.
- Data silos · Records, scans, genomes and outcomes sit in separate systems that cannot talk. Every patient's experience is lost to the next.