The number of clinical trials sponsored by the pharmaceutical industry has decreased “significantly” since 2001, and the number of principal investigators for trials in the United States has “declined even more steeply,” according to a study released by the... Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development, the Washington Post reports. For the study, Tufts researchers examined information collected from FDA. According to the study, the number of principal investigators for trials in the United States has decreased by 11% between 2001 and 2003, and the number for trials abroad increased by 8%, “suggesting that the outsourcing of drug research is beginning to accelerate,” the Post reports. The study also found that 12% of clinical trial investigators were women in 2003, a lower percentage than in 1992. Study author Kenneth Getz attributed the decrease in the number of trials sponsored by the pharmaceutical industry in large part to the discontinuation of trials before they reach their final phase. In addition, the study found that trials are “becoming less lucrative for doctors and researchers,” and, as a result, more trials are “being conducted at cheaper sites abroad” and in southern states, rather than more-expensive northern states, the Post reports (Kaufman, Washington Post, 5/4).
