Guidance on the registration of clinical trials and public disclosure of results: Clinical trials portal
On this page
About the search portal
Health Canada's Canadian Clinical Trial Search Portal is not a registry. It is a search tool and web application where we intend to publish information about Canadian clinical trials. Some of this information will be collected directly from international registries.
The search portal provides a source of information to the public about Canadian clinical trials that have met our regulatory requirements. It replaces the Clinical Trials Database. Weblinks to clinical trial records in the registries are provided on the search portal, when available. Users may follow the weblinks to obtain further information such as trial objectives, participant eligibility and summary results.
Health Canada uses several methods to find registry records that match authorized trials. The primary method involves using the protocol code. More information is available on the About the portal page about the matching process, the use of artificial intelligence and how to report matching errors.
The search portal displays information about Canadian drug clinical trials, including:
- biologics
- pharmaceuticals
- radiopharmaceuticals
Data sources and fields
The search portal displays information about Canadian clinical trials from 3 data sources:
- clinical trial applications provided to Health Canada, once all regulatory requirements have been met
- the World Health Organization's (WHO) International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP)
- registries that comply with WHO international standards
The information displayed from authorized clinical trial applications will be consistent with what was published on the former Clinical Trials Database:
- treatment
- sponsor name
- medical condition
- official protocol title
- Health Canada control number
- sponsor's protocol code (protocol number)
- date of no objection letter (NOL) or authorization date
The following will be extracted and displayed from international registries or the WHO ICTRP platform, when available:
- trial status
- trial phase
- trial locations
- contact details
- completion date
- weblink to registry
- study title (short title)
- weblink to summary results
- trial identification number assigned by registry
- age and sex criteria (study population)
Through evolution and subsequent implementation phases of the search portal, the type of information or its source may change over time.
Missing registry information
At the time of initial publication of a clinical trial on the search portal, certain information may not be available until:
- the sponsor has registered the clinical trial with a registry and
- Health Canada has extracted information from the registry
Clinical trials that opened for enrolment before implementation of this guidance document may display more limited information. If a clinical trial has opened and Health Canada has not been able to find a record of registration, the search portal will display more limited information.