The Clinical Trials Pulse

Week of Aug 10–16, 2026

A deterministic snapshot of the global clinical-trial landscape — every figure reproducible from the ClinicaLister knowledge graph.

All editions

This week at a glance

1,001
New trials registered
-0.4% vs prior week
418
Trials completed
40
Terminated / withdrawn / suspended
486
Completion-date slips
5
New FDA approvals
20 month-to-date
0
New EMA authorisations
4
New drug shortages
104 active
6,446
Publications added

New trials by phase

Registered in the past 7 days.

  • NA769
  • PHASE2102
  • PHASE176
  • PHASE346
  • PHASE431
  • EARLY_PHASE15

New trials by sponsor type

  • OTHER766
  • INDUSTRY191
  • OTHER_GOV28
  • NETWORK6
  • NIH4
  • FED3
  • UNKNOWN3

Status changes this week

Trials that moved to a new overall status.

  • COMPLETED418
  • RECRUITING279
  • ACTIVE_NOT_RECRUITING235
  • TERMINATED43
  • ENROLLING_BY_INVITATION26
  • WITHDRAWN21
  • SUSPENDED10
  • NOT_YET_RECRUITING5
  • NO_LONGER_AVAILABLE2

Why trials stopped

Terminations, withdrawals and suspensions — with the sponsor's stated reason.

  • NCT00046202 TERMINATED

    Study terminated due to low enrollment and availability of alternative protocols.

  • NCT01367964 TERMINATED

    Staffing disruptions leading to incomplete study enrollment prior to PI departure.

  • NCT01437787 TERMINATED
  • NCT02371460 TERMINATED

    Recruitment was prematurely terminated by the DSMB due to concern of harm for future participants based on interim data favoring the placebo group, findings from the N3RO trial, and the very low probability of benefit from DHA supplementation

  • NCT02769962 TERMINATED

    Accrual and drug manufacturing and supply were discontinued in 2025.

  • NCT02851992 TERMINATED

    Zimmer Biomet is prioritizing specific products within its portfolio and has chosen not to extend the CE mark for the GTS stem under MDR requirements, leading to the premature termination of the GTS study in 2024.

  • NCT03385109 TERMINATED

    Terminated due to a business decision by the acquiring company to discontinue the marketed product. The post-market surveillance registry was no longer feasible. Not related to safety concerns.

  • NCT03545607 TERMINATED

    Sponsor's decision

  • NCT03584802 TERMINATED

    Owing to the Covid-19 epidemics, suspension of inclusions on Monday 16 march 2020 for an undetermined period of time Terminated prematurely due to an excessive number of deaths

  • NCT03628560 TERMINATED

    Limited staff availability

  • NCT04007640 TERMINATED

    Population difficult to recruit; number of enrolled patients sufficient for analyses.

  • NCT04108741 TERMINATED

    recruitment difficulties

New FDA approvals

20 approvals month-to-date.

SponsorDrugApproved
NOVITIUM PHARMAFOSFOMYCIN TROMETHAMINE2026-08-12
AUROBINDO PHARMA LTDTRIAMCINOLONE ACETONIDE2026-08-11
BOSTAL DRUGVALSARTAN2026-08-11
VIWIT PHARMGADOTERATE MEGLUMINE2026-08-10
AUROBINDO PHARMABRIVARACETAM2026-08-10

New EMA authorisations

8.1% of the last year's EMA authorisations were conditional.

None authorised this period.

Drug shortage watch

4 new · 0 resolved · 104 currently active.

Newly reported shortagePosted
Fulvestrant Injection2026-08-14
Diclofenac Sodium Tablet, Delayed Release2026-08-13
Polyethylene glycol 3350, Sodium Ascorbate, Sodium Sulfate Anhydrous, Ascorbic Acid, Sodium Chloride, and Potassium Chloride Oral Solution2026-08-13
Glyburide Tablet2026-08-10

Hottest conditions

Most new trials this week.

  • anxiety disorder16
  • cognitive disorder14
  • breast cancer14
  • obesity disorder13
  • chronic pain syndrome12
  • cerebrovascular disorder12
  • cancer11
  • coronary artery disorder11
  • prostate cancer10
  • type 2 diabetes mellitus10

Most active sponsors

Industry sponsors, new trials · trailing 28 days.

  • AstraZeneca12
  • Novartis Pharmaceuticals10
  • Sichuan Baili Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.8
  • AbbVie8
  • Pfizer8
  • Bristol-Myers Squibb6
  • Boehringer Ingelheim6
  • Jiangsu Hansoh Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.6
  • HUINNO Co., Ltd6
  • GlaxoSmithKline5

Molecules on the move

New links where the molecule is the studied intervention.

  • aspirin23
  • efgartigimod alfa19
  • toripalimab16
  • serplulimab15
  • peginterferon alfa-2a15
  • zenrelia14
  • bevacizumab13
  • salicylic acid11
  • aspirin; omeprazole11
  • aspirin; oxycodone hydrochloride; oxycodone terephthalate11

Device corner

FDA device clearance data is current; MAUDE adverse-event and recall feeds lag ~1-2 months.

0
New device clearances
91
Device recalls logged

The graph, in reference

Whole-corpus totals and rankings, recomputed every week.

New trial registrations — trailing 12 months

Monthly new registrations across ClinicalTrials.gov. Puts the weekly count in context.

5,1092,5550
25-0825-1025-1226-0226-0426-0626-07
598,743
US trials
11,527
EU trials
9,209
Molecules
36,006
Diseases (MONDO)
29,777
FDA drugs
2,730
EMA medicines
177,526
FDA devices
1,940,701
Verified drug–trial links
1,140,344
Publications

Trials by phase

  • NA60%
  • PHASE214%
  • PHASE110%
  • PHASE38%
  • PHASE46%
  • EARLY_PHASE11%

Trials by sponsor type

  • OTHER71%
  • INDUSTRY22%
  • OTHER_GOV3%
  • NIH2%
  • NETWORK1%
  • FED1%
  • UNKNOWN0%
  • INDIV0%
  • AMBIG0%

Trials by study type

  • INTERVENTIONAL76%
  • OBSERVATIONAL23%
  • EXPANDED_ACCESS0%
  • UNKNOWN0%

Trials by recruitment status

  • COMPLETED55%
  • UNKNOWN13%
  • RECRUITING13%
  • TERMINATED6%
  • NOT_YET_RECRUITING6%
  • ACTIVE_NOT_RECRUITING4%
  • WITHDRAWN3%
  • ENROLLING_BY_INVITATION1%
  • SUSPENDED0%
  • WITHHELD0%

Top therapeutic areas

By linked trials (MONDO rollup).

  • cancer or benign tumor120,857
  • nervous system disorder115,355
  • hereditary disease81,061
  • digestive system disorder73,320
  • cardiovascular disorder70,634
  • endocrine system disorder55,285
  • psychiatric disorder53,283
  • musculoskeletal system disorder52,290
  • immune system disorder50,501
  • inflammatory disease48,845
  • respiratory system disorder47,017
  • infectious disease46,866
  • reproductive system disorder39,197
  • metabolic disease34,812
  • hematologic disorder33,186

Trials by country of site

Among the 75,658 trials with a mapped site location — not the whole corpus.

  • United States31,762
  • China8,362
  • France7,348
  • Canada5,149
  • Turkey (Türkiye)4,684
  • Spain4,666
  • United Kingdom4,546
  • Germany4,418
  • Italy4,321
  • South Korea2,901
  • Australia2,733
  • Belgium2,472
  • Poland2,427
  • Netherlands2,347
  • Egypt2,225

Top sponsors

SponsorTrials
Cairo University4,795
Assiut University4,753
GlaxoSmithKline3,625
National Cancer Institute (NCI)3,553
Assistance Publique - Hôpitaux de Paris3,539
AstraZeneca3,472
Pfizer3,293
Mayo Clinic3,231
M.D. Anderson Cancer Center3,018
Novartis Pharmaceuticals2,685
National Taiwan University Hospital2,590
Massachusetts General Hospital2,559
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)2,437
Boehringer Ingelheim2,285
University of California, San Francisco2,149
Stanford University2,144
Riphah International University2,143
Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC2,139
Hoffmann-La Roche2,082
Eli Lilly and Company2,074
Duke University2,045
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center1,942
Seoul National University Hospital1,887
Ain Shams University1,880
Hospices Civils de Lyon1,835

Most-studied conditions

ConditionTrials
breast cancer11,816
obesity disorder9,583
type 2 diabetes mellitus9,150
chronic pain syndrome8,820
cancer8,254
HIV infectious disease8,218
COVID-197,646
non-small cell lung carcinoma6,385
hypertensive disorder6,139
diabetes mellitus6,132
cerebrovascular disorder6,030
colorectal cancer6,029
coronary artery disorder5,955
prostate cancer5,861
depressive disorder5,843
cardiovascular disorder5,608
anxiety disorder4,920
heart failure4,908
injury4,497
Parkinson disease4,440
asthma4,425
cognitive disorder4,195
lung cancer4,062
benign essential hypertension3,886
neuralgia3,839

Most-studied molecules

MoleculeTrials
carboplatin7,189
paclitaxel5,570
isoniazid5,343
prednisolone5,285
cyclophosphamide5,125
ropivacaine4,864
dexamethasone4,808
bevacizumab4,622
cisplatin4,480
lidocaine3,626
aspirin3,402
gemcitabine3,188
bupivacaine3,128
pembrolizumab2,994
desoxycorticosterone acetate2,984
metformin2,977
sitagliptin and metformin hydrochloride2,963
rituximab2,944
meprednisone2,850
dapagliflozin metformin hydrochloride2,788
sitagliptin metformin hydrochloride2,773
docetaxel2,764
linagliptin and metformin hydrochloride2,760
fluorouracil2,721
alogliptin and metformin hydrochloride2,702

The pipeline & the cliff

Standing competitive & regulatory landscape — who is developing what, at which stage, and which drugs are about to lose exclusivity.

Pipeline competitive matrix

Active trials by the most prolific industry sponsors, split by phase.

Phase 1Phase 2Phase 3
GlaxoSmithKline
1,094
861
892
AstraZeneca
1,020
551
805
Pfizer
1,175
709
656
Novartis Pharmaceuticals
508
836
735
Boehringer Ingelheim
1,069
321
399
Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC
700
550
739
Hoffmann-La Roche
493
481
568
Eli Lilly and Company
828
536
548

Patent cliff — loss of exclusivity

FDA drugs whose exclusivity expires soon (distinct substances).

46
< 6 months
41
6–12 months
100
12–24 months
Drug (losing exclusivity < 6mo)Expires
Valbenazine Tosylate2026-08-18
Gallium Ga-68 Edotreotide2026-08-21
Cobicistat2026-08-22
Difelikefalin Acetate2026-08-23
Sofosbuvir2026-08-28
Ledipasvir; Sofosbuvir2026-08-28
Citalopram Hydrobromide2026-09-16
Phentolamine Mesylate2026-09-25
Miglustat2026-09-28
Atogepant2026-09-28
Technetium Tc-99m Labeled Carbon2026-09-29
Patiromer Sorbitex Calcium2026-10-02
Risdiplam2026-10-03
Dexamethasone2026-10-03
Afamelanotide2026-10-08

Regulatory designations

FDA drugs carrying each designation.

16,488
Orphan drug
838
Fast track
29
Breakthrough
74
Pediatric exclusivity

Most-tested comparators

Molecules most often used as the comparator arm (the standard to beat).

  • alogliptin and metformin hydrochloride1,967
  • sitagliptin and metformin hydrochloride1,960
  • sitagliptin metformin hydrochloride1,231
  • metformin960
  • ropivacaine878
  • prednisolone877
  • dapagliflozin metformin hydrochloride831
  • dexamethasone769

Methodology & sources

Every figure is a deterministic SQL aggregate over the ClinicaLister knowledge graph as of the report date. No figure is AI-generated or estimated; each is reproducible and traceable to its public source.

Sources: ClinicalTrials.gov · EU CTIS · openFDA (drugs, devices, shortages) · EMA · MONDO disease ontology · GSRS · GUDID · Europe PMC / PubMed

Every figure above is a deterministic aggregate over the ClinicaLister knowledge graph — and one click deep in the product, with a source behind each claim.

Machine-readable: download this edition as JSON above, or query the full archive programmatically via the public get_public_report_snapshots endpoint.