This post was written by Paul Sheives. On December 29, 2009, the Food & Drug Administration Act (FDA) issued a proposed rule that would amend the informed consent regulations to require the addition of an element regarding disclosure of information to the National Institute of Health (NIH) clinical trials database. Under the Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act of 2007, sponsors of “applicable clinical trials” are required to submit information for listing in the NIH clinical trial database. The proposed rule would require all informed consents for such “applicable clinical trials” – including specified drug, biologic, and device clinical investigations — to include language informing the subject of the potential disclosure of the de-identified data to the clinical trials database (www.clinicaltrials.gov). FDA is accepting comments on the proposal until March 1, 2010.