What is the ANZCTR?

The Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ANZCTR) is an online register of clinical trials being undertaken in Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere. The ANZCTR includes trials from the full spectrum of therapeutic areas of pharmaceuticals, surgical procedures, preventive measures, lifestyle, devices, treatment and rehabilitation strategies and complementary therapies.

In 2007 the ANZCTR was one of the first three trial registries to be recognised by the World Health Organization International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (WHO ICTRP) as a Primary Registry. WHO recognises registries as Primary Registries if they fulfil certain criteria with respect to data content, quality and validity, accessibility, unique identification, technical capacity and administration. The ANZCTR contributes data to the WHO ICTRP, which was developed in 2007. Trials from all ICTRP Primary Registries can be searched at: https://trialsearch.who.int/.


Key points about the ANZCTR


  • Publicly owned, managed by a not-for-profit organisation
  • All details of trials registered on the ANZCTR are made publicly available
  • Registration is voluntary, but if a registrant chooses to register a trial, certain fields are mandatory
  • Registration is free of charge
  • Responsibility for registration lies with the sponsor
    • The sponsor is defined by the NHMRC and Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) as "an individual, company or institution or organization which takes responsibility for the initiation, management and/or financing of a clinical trial"
    • It is the sponsor's responsibility to ensure that the information submitted is accurate and up-to-date.

What information will be recorded?

The registry records a trial's

  • objectives
  • main design features
  • sample size and recruitment status
  • treatments under investigation
  • outcomes being assessed
  • principal investigator
  • contact person

The ANZCTR mandatory data items comply with the minimum dataset requirements of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and the World Health Organization (WHO). Once the submitted data complies with these requirements, it will be allocated a unique registration number.

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