Legal clarity on the meaning of ‘commercially confidential information’ within sight

Demand for greater transparency and disclosure of pre-clinical and clinical data by industry continues to attract significant debate. Recent academic studies, published in Current Medical Research and Opinion and the British Medical Journal, have systematically assessed the disclosure policies of trial data arising from studies sponsored by pharmaceutical companies. In the EU, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has adopted policies and guidance setting out its approach to data disclosure. Certain aspects of the adopted policies are currently being considered by European Courts, to address the nature of the balance to be struck between the public interest in transparency and the interest (both public and private) in protecting innovative research from unfair commercial use. In a broader context, the prevailing legal framework is based on a need for coherence and equilibrium between the general regulation governing public access or freedom of information and the sector-specific legislation regarding authorisation and supervision of medicines. In this blog post, we provide a summary of these cases, as heard in the European Courts to date.Continue Reading Update on transparency of clinical data