Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2014
Keywords
Pharmaceutical Regulation, Transparency, Innovation, Governance, Clinical Trials
Abstract
Efforts to foster transparency in biopharmaceutical regulation are well underway: drug manufacturers are, for example, legally required to register clinical trials and share research results in the United States and Europe. Recently, the policy conversation has shifted toward the disclosure of clinical trial data, not just trial designs and basic results. Here, I argue that clinical trial registration and disclosure of clinical trial data are necessary but insufficient. There is also a need to ensure that regulatory decisions that flow from clinical trials — whether positive (i.e. product approvals) or negative (i.e. abandoned products, product refusals, and withdrawals) — are open to outside scrutiny. Further, a jurisprudence of drug regulation is needed. I develop two arguments motivated by 1) innovation concerns and 2) the value of good governance in support of openly publishing all final decisions for approved, abandoned, refused, and withdrawn products. After articulating why greater transparency in regulatory decision-making is needed, I distil four essential features of a jurisprudence of drug regulation that prescribe policy changes in terms not only of the transparency of regulatory outcomes and the underlying reasoning, but also regulatory organization.
Recommended Citation
Matthew Herder, "Toward a Jurisprudence of Drug Regulation" (2014) 42:2 JL Medicine & Ethics 244.
Included in
Health Law and Policy Commons, Intellectual Property Law Commons, Jurisprudence Commons, Legislation Commons, Medical Jurisprudence Commons, Science and Technology Law Commons
Comments
This article has been published in a revised form in the Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics [https://doi.org/10.1111/jlme.12139]. This version is free to view and download for private research and study only. Not for re-distribution, re-sale, or use in deriviative works.
© Matthew Herder