A new study about studies on studies say that about half of all scientific clinical trials go unpublished and those that are put to print sometimes omit key details.

“US law requires the results of medical research for drugs approved by the US Food and Drug Administration to be submitted to a database called ClinicalTrials.gov. Results, including adverse effects, have been made public there since 2008. Researchers who do not post results within a year of trial completion risk losing grants and can be fined as much as US$10,000 per day. But the database was never meant to replace journal publications, which often contain longer descriptions of methods and results and are the basis for big reviews of research on a given drug,” as said by Nature.com, a self proclaimed international weekly journal of science.

What are the implications of this? Well if the research isn’t published is it even valid? I know it’s on a database, but it never reaches print, does it matter?

The story here, claims that sometimes big-pharma may keep these stories from being published if they have a negative result in the findings. Yet as long as they get registered to the website up top they are ready to roll out.

Sadly, in my opinion, there are many loopholes here; loopholes that could be sealed by congressional passed laws. It’s just a shame that the people who could save this bill face the fallback of making the pharmaceutical industry angry. An industry that spends more lobbying than any other.

It’s down right chilling if you ask me. For more info on how career politicians exist, check this out.