Registration of Clinical Trials: How Developing Countries Could Prepare for the Upcoming Storm

he interest in using and conducting clinical trials in developing world is rising promptly. Knowing the importance of this kind of research in generating therapeutic evidence, many clinical researchers in developing countries including Iran are getting involved in performing clinical trials. Authors performed a quick search in ISI Web of Knowledge database (May 2008) which shows interesting results. The number of Iranian clinical trials indexed in the database rose exponentially from 2 in 1997 to 80 in 2006 and 122 in 2007. This is the tip of the iceberg, because many of them are published in local Persian or English language journals which are not indexed in international databases. Increasing number of ongoing clinical trials emphasizes the need for mechanisms to keep eye on their quality, transparency, and ethical considerations.