IFPMA Clinical Trials Portal

The International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations (IFPMA) has launched the second stage of the IFPMA Clinical Trials Portal. Developed in conjunction with IBM, the portal is said to be the first internet search engine constructed to link to online information about on-going and completed clinical trials sponsored by research-based pharmaceutical companies worldwide. Said to be in line with the pharmaceutical industry's commitment to increase the transparency of clinical trials, this latest development of the portal focuses on helping more people to use the IFPMA Clinical Trials Portal and making it an easier unique locator for them to use. Now, for example, users can input search criteria for clinical trials in German, French, Japanese and Spanish, as well as English, thus extending its usability to millions more people worldwide. Additional languages will be considered later, depending on the usage pattern of the portal. The search facility has been improved so that it suggests synonyms for medical conditions and helps to correct misspelled words, including the names of medicines. It is now said to be easier to perform multiple criteria searches and for searches to be qualified by geographical area. The Stage 1 Portal, which was launched in September 2005, indexed some 26,000 individual pages. The Stage 2 Portal already indexes more than 88,000 – and the number promises to grow.