GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has fulfilled its promise to make its clinical trial information public by creating an online registry, the company said.

The registry, available at http://ctr.gsk.co.uk (http://ctr.gsk.co.uk), includes the summaries of all clinical trials, from Phase I to Phase IV, that have been sponsored by GSK anywhere in the world since December 27, 2000 -- a total of more than 2,600 trials.

GSK first proposed posting the trials online in 2004.

"We have created a record of transparency which we believe is unsurpassed in regard to medical interventions that affect the daily lives of patients," said Frank Rockhold, senior vice president of biomedical data sciences at GSK. "The initiative to make healthcare information more widely available is growing as more pharmaceutical companies create results databases."

In the current issue of the British medical journal The Lancet, Rockhold and Ronald Krall, senior vice president and chief medical officer at GSK, touted the potential of databases like the GSK register and stressed the possible need for medical journals to adjust policies that discourage the initial publication of data online.