The number of trials listed in the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP) is reported by year, country, WHO region and income group for the period 1999–2022. Note that the ICTRP comprises both interventional and observational trials. See more on scope of ICTRP below.
See also:
What you see | Scope and limitations | Data sources | Previous versions
What you see
The data visualization above shows the trend in the registration of trials reported on ICTRP from 1999 to 2022, grouped by WHO region (chart A), and income group (chart B). The year corresponds to the date of enrollment of the first trial participant, in a small number of cases when this is not available, the registration year is used. (Multicountry trials conducted in the same region or income group are counted as one trial in chart A and chart B).
Chart C shows the number of recruiting trials by country, colour coded by WHO region. (Here, a multicountry trial is counted once in each participating country.)
Points to note:
- Over the analysis period, there was a steady rise in the number of newly recruiting trials registered on ICTRP for most WHO regions, although in 2022, a decrease is noticed in almost all regions, notably in Western Pacific region with 52% decrease compared with 2021. However, the number of trials registered in WHO’s Europe, Americas and Western Pacific regions has increased at a much higher rate than in other regions. For example, in 2022 the number of trials registered in Western Pacific (12,337) was around 14 times higher than that in Africa (861) (chart A).
- Since 2016, the Western Pacific region is becoming the region with the highest number of trial registration per year among WHO regions, along with the Europe and the region of the Americas (chart A). The increase comes primarily from a large number of trial registration in China and Japan, which rank as first and second in the Western Pacific region respectively (select Western Pacific in chart A and view chart C).
This may be explained by the following facts:
-- In China, an increasing number of Chinese journals, government funding agencies, universities, and hospitals require trials to be registered.
-- In 2009, trial registration was added as a requirement of ethical guidelines for medical research in Japan.
However, both countries reported a decrease between 2021 and 2022 (select China and Japan respectively in chart C, and view chart A and chart B). - Exploring the trends by income group (chart B), shows that the rise in the number of newly recruiting trials registered, reported on ICTRP, was much higher in high income group countries than in other income groups . For example, in 2022 the number of trials registered in high income countries (27,133) was over 90 times higher than in low income countries (294).