EU researchers develop early warning system for drug trial failures
An innovative computer system designed to warn regulators swiftly about new, unexpected side-effects of approved medicines is being developed by an EU-funded research project.
An innovative computer system designed to warn regulators swiftly about new, unexpected side-effects of approved medicines is being developed by an EU-funded research project.
At present, clinicians are responsible for reporting such events, but this ad hoc system has meant that "adverse effects of drugs may be detected too late, when millions of patients have already been exposed", claims the ALERT research consortium. Its Euro 5.9m project will also try to identify apparent side-effects actually unlinked to a medicine, "which might even result in withdrawal of a useful drug from the market".
ALERT researchers will analyse data from electronic healthcare records for more than 30 million patients from the UK, the Netherlands, Denmark, Spain and Italy, to help configure its new system.