Abstract
Background
The status of pediatric clinical trials performed in South Korea in the last decade, including clinical trials of drugs with unapproved indications for children, has not been previously examined.
Objective
The aim was to provide information regarding the current state of pediatric clinical trials and create a basis for future trials performed in South Korea by reviewing three databases of clinical trials registrations.
Methods
We searched for pediatric clinical studies (participants <18 years old) conducted in South Korea between 2006 and 2015 registered on the Clinical Research Information Service (CRIS), ClinicalTrials.gov, and the European Clinical Trials Registry (EuCTR). Additionally, we reviewed whether unapproved indications were involved in each trial by comparing the trials with a list of authorized trials provided by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS). The primary and secondary outcomes were to determine the change in number of pediatric clinical trials with unapproved indications over time and to assess the status of unauthorized pediatric clinical trials from the MFDS and the publication of articles after these clinical trials, respectively.
Results
We identified 342 clinical studies registered in the CRIS (n = 81), ClinicalTrials.gov (n = 225), and EuCTR (n = 36), of which 306 were reviewed after excluding duplicate registrations. Among them, 181 studies were interventional trials dealing with drugs and biological agents, of which 129 (71.3%) involved unapproved drugs. Of these 129 trials, 107 (82.9%) were authorized by the MFDS.
Conclusions
Pediatric clinical trials in South Korea aiming to establish the safety and efficacy of drugs in children are increasing; however, non-MFDS-authorized studies remain an issue.
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Author contributions
Study concept and design: CSN, KHS. Revision: CSN, KHS. Review of entered data and support for data analysis: CSN, LJH, SIK, KEH, KJT, KHS. Statistical analysis: CSN, KHS. Manuscript approval: CSN, LJH, SIK, KEH, KJT, KHS.
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Funding
This research was supported by a grant from the Korea Health Technology R&D Project through the Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI), funded by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, Republic of Korea (Grant Number: HC15C1523).
Conflict of interest
Sheung-Nyoung Choi, Ji-Hyun Lee, In-Kyung Song, Eun-Hee Kim, Jin-Tae Kim, and Hee-Soo Kim have no potential conflicts of interest to disclose.
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Choi, SN., Lee, JH., Song, IK. et al. Pediatric Clinical Trials Conducted in South Korea from 2006 to 2015: An Analysis of the South Korean Clinical Research Information Service, US ClinicalTrials.gov and European Clinical Trials Registries. Pediatr Drugs 19, 569–575 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40272-017-0252-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40272-017-0252-2