GlaxoSmithKline Plans Test Site

It may not make clinical trial results any easier to understand, but U.K. drug giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) plans to make it easier to find the information with the creation of an online database to pool information from the studies it sponsors.

On Friday, the company announced plans to distribute clinical trial data over the Internet in a database called the GSK Clinical Trial Register. At the site, visitors can read summaries of trial protocols, pore through testing results and even see references to medical journals where the studies have appeared.

The GSK Clinical Trial Register will be available to physicians and the general public and has been under consideration and development for a few months. But GSK declined to announce a specific launch date, saying the site's availability would be announced on its corporate Website at a later date.

"The GSK Clinical Trial Register will be a major advance in providing online access to information and support patient care, facilitating access to study summaries by putting them on a single Internet site," said Tadataka Yamada, chairman of research and development at the company. The GSK announcement follows recent calls for the industry to have a centralized database for drug trial results.

Shares of GSK rose 26 cents, or 0.7%, to $42.80 on Friday.

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