Drug manufacturers acknowledge they face a crisis of credibility that they hope to remedy by releasing information about their clinical trials in multiple locations. But at a contentious congressional hearing Thursday, representatives of the companies said they also are concerned that releasing all of the information will be so unwieldy that it could confuse doctors and patients. Dr. John R. Hayes, product team leader at Eli Lilly and Co., said a single report about a drug can number more than 400,000 pages. Flooding a Web site with 120,000 clinical trials may dilute the usefulness of the information, said Dr. David Wheadon, senior vice president of regulatory affairs for Philadelphia-based GlaxoSmithKline. “We always want to make sure we’re serving the good, the right purpose,” he said. The pair testified at a House subcommittee hearing designed to give seven drug companies an opportunity to explain how they did — or did not — disclose studies that suggested links between antidepressant use and suicidal thoughts in children. Controversy first flared last summer with the disclosure that unpublished studies made that link.
