The following is a summary of “CHARACTERISTICS OF CONTEMPORARY ATRIAL FIBRILLATION CLINICAL TRIALS AND THEIR ASSOCIATION WITH INDUSTRY SPONSORSHIP,” published in the March 2023 issue of Cardiology by Lan, et al.
Atrial fibrillation clinical trials often receive funding from commercial industries, but the potential implications of such funding still need to be fully analyzed.
For a study, researchers systematically assessed completed atrial fibrillation trials registered in ClinicalTrials.gov from conception to September 1, 2022. They extracted publicly available information on trial characteristics, including funding source, trial size, race, ethnicity, sex, intervention, location, and publication status. They compared the characteristics using the Wilcoxon rank sum test and Fisher’s exact test for continuous and categorical variables.
Of the 253 clinical trials analyzed, 171 (68%) reported industry funding. Industry-funded trials had a significantly greater median total enrollment (172 vs 80; P < 0.001), publication rate (56.7% vs 42.7%; P = 0.04), participation in device trials (48.0% vs 24.4%; P < 0.001), and multicontinental recruitment location (25.2% vs 2.4%; P < 0.001) compared to non-industry funded trials. However, there was no significant difference in the median impact factor (7.7 vs 7.7; P = 0.723) or the median number of citations (60.0 vs 29.0; P = 0.09) between the two groups.
Industry-funded clinical trials in atrial fibrillation tend to be larger, more frequently published, multicontinental, and device-focused. Significant differences existed in study enrollment, publication metrics, and study interventions associated with industry funding.