An extensive analysis of thousands of pediatric trials found 1 in 10 ended early — and among the studies that were completed, the vast majority of results still had not been reported or published three years later, raising concerns about incomplete knowledge about treatments for children.
Moreover, the problems existed regardless of the funding sources, although studies supported by the pharmaceutical industry were significantly more likely to be discontinued. And industry-sponsored trials also had lower odds of being published three years after completion, according to the analysis, which looked at 13,200 studies conducted from October 2007 to March 2020 and was published Tuesday in Pediatrics.