Drug regulation and the tradition of secrecy

Where drugs are concerned there will always be some matters which in the interests of fair competition must be respected as the manufacturing secrets, complementing those other proprietary matters which can be protected by patents. Experience during the last thirty years, however, suggested that the protection of these interests should not extend to the concealment of data on clinical, pharmacological and toxicological matters. To hide such data from view is to retard the development of knowledge, and to raise a very great risk that the user of a drug may be injured unnecessarily.