Johnson & Johnson announces agreement with Yale , discloses trial data

Johnson & Johnson announced an agreement with Yale University under which the company will share more detailed clinical trial data from drugs and other products. The deal is a great move forward for the company, which is trying to establish greater transparency in drug research.

On the other hand, some proposals from scientists, who want to conduct safety, efficacy and other studies of the treatments will be reviewed by Yale University. The latter will also determine, without input from Johnson & Johnson, which researchers will be given access to the clinical data.

The Chief Scientific Officer and world-wide Chairman for pharmaceuticals – Paul Stoffels said for the Wall Street Journal: “The medical scientific community and population at large want to have more transparency on what we do. To get really credible, we took the leap” to set up an “independent way to make sure people get access to the data.”

Johnson & Johnson explained that these efforts are believed to help advance medical science. They are also part of the companys campaign of restoring trust in the data. For example, independent researchers might scour the data for subgroups of patients, which are more likely to benefit from a certain drug, or be at enhanced risk or side effects.

Under the conditions of the new agreement, data from all of the companys pharmaceutical products approved in the U.S. and Europe will be available to researchers. Similar data from clinical trials of medical devices and over-the-counter products may be eventually provided to researchers. The company said that it will take everything that it takes to keep the privacy of patients, and that it wont be involved in deciding which applicants get access to the study information.

Harlan Krumholz, who is a cardiologists in Yale and also the head of the Yale Open Data Access Project said for the Wall Street Journal: “They are sharing their entire trove of clinical trial assets and they have given us complete authority and jurisdiction over all decisions regarding data access. Thats a remarkable action.”

According to CNN Money, the current share price of Johnson & Johnson is 1.33% down, and its one-year return rate is 2.94% down. The 16 analysts offering 12-month price forecasts for Johnson & Johnson have a median target of 99.50, with a high estimate of 108.00 and a low estimate of 88.40. The median estimate represents a 11.92% increase from the last price of 88.90.