Further Update

Hi AllTrials friends

Yesterday we sent our submission to the court in the judicial review brought against the HRA by Richmond Pharmacology.

We have spent the last few weeks ploughing through the hundreds of pages of documents. Richmond is currently asking the judge to rule that there is no overriding legal requirement to publicly register any trial. That’s not correct. Since 2011 all trials except for adult phase 1 have been publicly registered through the EU Clinical Trials Register. And by next year this legal requirement will extend to all clinical trials unless exempted according to some very tight criteria. Richmond is effectively asking the judge to set the clock back 10 years and wipe out the careful progress that has been made in relation to trials registration at national and EU level. We have set out in detail the legal frameworks related to this, and put forward legal arguments as to why HRA has a duty to monitor compliance with both legal requirements and sound practice for running a trial. However, Richmond has changed its case three times and may yet change it again.  

The hearing will be in open court in Manchester on Thursday 16^th July. We will be there. It would be lovely to see any of you who’d like to come along too; we could do with some help capturing what is discussed in Court. We are unlikely to know the result on the 16^th, we hope the Judge will make his decision by the end of July but it could be October.We and our barrister Jonathan Price and solicitor Robert Dougans knew that we faced a demanding timetable and it meant that two of us here at Sense About Science have been almost completely absorbed by reading and writing legal arguments (it’s why I don’t have a suntan, when most of London does!).

We have managed to keep the rest of the AllTrials campaign going only in the face of that because many of you have given us help and topped up our fundraising appeal. Thank you! In a couple of weeks I will be able to show you just how significant that is. We are about to break a story about a new group coming on board for all trials registered and all results reported, in a way that should change part of the international scene, for good. We are also reaching the critical mass to be able to launch a US campaign. I can see from the comments on the Just Giving site how determined you are that the challenge of the Richmond/HRA case is not going to stop this. And if you have been thinking about giving something, however small, could I urge you to do it now?  

Let us know if you can join us in court on 16^th.

Best wishes
Síle and James

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