Clinical trials funded from 2018-2021: FOI release

Information requested

You had originally sent in a query where you requested the following information:

I would be grateful for the following information:

1. How many clinical trials took place in Scotland in 2022?
2. How many of these trials were funded by the NHS?
3. How many of these trials were funded privately?

You subsequently requested:

Apologies - could I also please have this information for the years 2021, 2020, 2019 and 2019 respectively?

Response

Thank you for your email. I am responding to your query you sent on 8 March 2023 about the number and funding of clinical trials in Scotland for the years 2021, 2020 and 2019. I assume the repeated 2019 in your query was a typo, and that you meant to ask for figures covering 2018-2021. As such, I will providing figures that cover this time period.

As outlined in our previous response to you regarding the figures for 2022, clinical trials are a specific type of research study that involves comparing the effect of one treatment with another; whilst clinical research studies can encompass any type of research (including clinical trials) involving people that aims to uncover new information about health and/or disease. The figures below refer to the number of clinical research studies rather than clinical trials specifically. The figures I discuss below represent the figures held by the Chief Scientist Office (CSO) in the Scottish Government, which are provided to us periodically by NHS Research Scotland (NRS) (https://www.nhsresearchscotland.org.uk/).

These figures cover the period from October 2017 – September 2021, rather than the full calendar years from 2018 to 2021. The reason for this is because annual clinical research activity in the NHS is tracked from October of one year until September of the following year, rather than by calendar or financial year. I have answered your queries separately, and the figures below are in reference to clinical research studies that were active, in follow-up phase, or completed in Scotland over the stated time period (these figures also include studies that were reported as suspended during the pandemic).

How many clinical trials took place in Scotland each year from 2018 to 2021?
Please see the table below for the total number of clinical research studies reported as active, in follow-up phase, or completed in Scotland each year from October 2017 - September 2021, from the data that we hold:

Time Period	Total Number of Clinical Research Studies
October 2017 - September 2018	1,586
October 2018 - September 2019	1,589
October 2019 - September 2020	1,541
October 2020 - September 2021	1,466

How many of these trials were funded by the NHS?
As explained in our earlier response, generally speaking, clinical research studies are funded by public bodies such as UK Research & Innovation, UK health departments or their research funding bodies, non-profit third sector organisations such as medical research charities, or industry organisations. However, the data recorded by NRS and provided to us is classified by research sponsor rather than funder. A research sponsor is the organisation or body that takes responsibility for setting up, carrying out and eventually reporting a particular research study. Sponsors are often (but not always) distinct from the organisation that is the primary research funder. When studies are sponsored by industry/private entities, they are referred to as commercial studies. Studies sponsored by organisations other than industry/private entities (such as public bodies or non-profit third sector organisations like those mentioned above) are thus not classified as commercial projects in the data that we hold. Thus, when providing the figures below, non-commercial research studies refer to studies which were not classified as commercial in our dataset.

Please see the table below for the number of non-commercial research studies reported as active, in follow-up phase, or completed in Scotland each year from October 2017 - September 2021, from the data that we hold:

Time Period	Total Number of Non-Commercial Research Studies
October 2017 - September 2018	1,152
October 2018 - September 2019	1,072
October 2019 - September 2020	1,022
October 2020 - September 2021	969

However, industry/private funding may still contribute to these non-commercial research studies, but we cannot determine this from the data that we hold.

How many of these trials were privately funded?

Following on from the clarification above on funders and sponsors, commercial studies are defined here as those that are sponsored by industry/private entities. However, in most instances of commercial research studies, the private entity that sponsors the study is also the funder for that study.

Please see the table below for the number of commercial research studies reported as active, in follow-up phase, or completed in Scotland each year from October 2017 - September 2021, from the data that we hold:

Time Period	Total Number of Commercial Research Studies
October 2017 - September 2018	434
October 2018 - September 2019	517
October 2019 - September 2020	519
October 2020 - September 2021	497

The above figures were all collated from datasets the Scottish Government holds, which are provided to us periodically by NRS. However, these datasets are subject to change and may not contain the most up-to-date data. For more accurate and up-to-date figures, you could contact the Central Management Team of NRS directly, as they are the organisation responsible for collating this data.

General Enquiries contact details for NRS Central Management Team: communications@nrs.org.uk

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