COVID-19 trials were not more likely to report intent to share individual data than non-COVID-19 trials in ClinicalTrials.gov
Sharing individual participant data (IPD) from clinical trials may accelerate clinical research and improve its quality by contributing to research reproducibility, generation of new hypotheses and acceleration of clinical development. The COVID-19 pandemic has further highlighted the importance of sharing IPD. In this study, we aimed to assess whether COVID-19 trials were more likely to report intent to share IPD than non-COVID-19 trials at registration in ClinicalTrials.gov. We also compared the intent to share IPD between these trials and those registered in the prepandemic period. We found that COVID-19 trials were not more likely to report intent to share IPD at registration than non-COVID-19 trials. Intent to share IPD did not significantly increase as compared with the prepandemic period. Industry-sponsored trials and trials conducted in the United States or in the European Union were more likely to report intent to share IPD than other trials. In a context of insufficient data-sharing practices in clinical trials, the COVID-19 pandemic does not seem to have changed these practices despite its importance to accelerate research in response to this unprecedented pandemic.