Study reveals GDPR impacts pharmaceutical research
06/02/2026 | University of California
A new working paper by researchers at the University of California on the impact of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) reveals that the regulation has unintentionally impeded the development of new medicines. The study into data privacy and innovation found that pharmaceutical companies within scope ran approximately 18% fewer Phase II trials after 2018.
The research indicates that clinical trials under GDPR requirements now study fewer diseases, take longer to conduct, and are less likely to reach completion. Furthermore, drug developers have reduced the number of trial sites used within the EU. To mitigate compliance costs related to sharing personal data, firms have formed fewer new collaborations, instead favouring existing partners. The result has effectively excluded smaller and younger firms from potentially lucrative research partnerships.
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