NIH failed to ensure all clinical trials it funded complied with federal reporting rule, watchdog

The National Institutes of Health failed to insure that all clinical trials funded by the agency and required to be reported in 2019 and 2020 met federal requirements, according to an inspector general report released Tuesday.

The Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General reviewed a total of 72 such trials from that period and found results were never submitted in 25, late in 12 and on time in 35. 

Thirty-six of the 72 were conducted outside of the NIH, and 21 were not in compliance.

The watchdog blamed the noncompliance on the NIH for not having "adequate procedures for ensuring that responsible parties submitted the results of clinical trials."

It also said it suspected problems because data showed that most NIH-funded clinical trials that were completed in calendar year 2018 did not have their results posted.

The NIH concurred with the watchdog's report and "described actions it has taken or plans to take to address them."

The federal agency has a history of funding projects that do not comply with federal requirements.

In 2005, Just the News Editor-in-Chief John Solomon reported the NIH's National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases, under the direction of Dr. Anthony Fauci, failed to follow requirements during an AIDS study involving foster children.