CT.gov Industry Disclosure Gap

Abstract

How large is the industry-specific disclosure gap inside ClinicalTrials.gov? Using the live ClinicalTrials.gov API and Python code shared on GitHub for reproducibility, we analysed a 29 March 2026 full-registry snapshot, focusing on 128,464 industry-linked studies and 87,296 closed interventional industry studies. We derived omission flags for missing results, missing actual enrollment, missing IPD statements, missing publication links, and missing detailed descriptions, keeping sponsor-level counts so rate-based and absolute backlog silence could be read together across firms globally. Among older closed interventional industry studies, 58.1 percent had no posted results, leaving 44,007 unresolved two-year no-results records in the industry bucket alone. The biggest backlogs sat with GlaxoSmithKline, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Sanofi, and Pfizer, while several smaller sponsors exceeded 95 percent on the same rate metric. Industry records were also structurally sparse, with 63.2 percent lacking IPD statements, 66.6 percent lacking publication links, and 53.8 percent lacking detailed descriptions. These show registry-visible non-disclosure rather than legal breach.