The Clinical Trials Pulse

Week of Sep 21–27, 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

1,074
New trials registered
+10.3% vs prior week
460
Trials completed
40
Terminated / withdrawn / suspended
515
Completion-date slips
0
New FDA approvals
38 month-to-date
1
New EMA authorisations
1
New drug shortages
103 active
1,683
Publications added

New trials by phase

Registered in the past 7 days.

  • NA819
  • PHASE2112
  • PHASE167
  • PHASE354
  • PHASE438
  • EARLY_PHASE110

New trials by sponsor type

  • OTHER853
  • INDUSTRY166
  • OTHER_GOV43
  • FED5
  • NETWORK4
  • UNKNOWN2
  • NIH1

Status changes this week

Trials that moved to a new overall status.

  • COMPLETED460
  • RECRUITING338
  • ACTIVE_NOT_RECRUITING190
  • TERMINATED35
  • WITHDRAWN30
  • SUSPENDED23
  • ENROLLING_BY_INVITATION11
  • NOT_YET_RECRUITING5
  • NO_LONGER_AVAILABLE2

Why trials stopped

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

  • NCT00222417 WITHDRAWN

    Study not startet. PI not working at the Universityhospital of North Norway

  • NCT02444936 TERMINATED

    unable to obtain samples of key groups to do any analysis.

  • NCT03198572 TERMINATED

    Enrolment terminated early owing to slow accrual (repeat-biopsy burden and COVID-19 pandemic), following a protocol-specified interim analysis approved by the ethics committee (2017-050(5)).

  • NCT03483181 WITHDRAWN

    After further evaluation, the secondary data source was determined to be insufficient to address the study objectives. No prospective patient enrollment was planned, and the study was not initiated.

  • NCT03504878 WITHDRAWN

    After further evaluation, the secondary data source was determined to be insufficient to address the study objectives. No prospective patient enrollment was planned, and the study was not initiated

  • NCT03508739 WITHDRAWN

    We do not have active funding.

  • NCT03891615 TERMINATED

    Slow accrual.

  • NCT04232631 SUSPENDED

    Temporarily closed to enrollment as the company that provided the hyperspectral imaging camera to previous PI had new PI return the devices. Since study is unfunded, currently investigating rental cost of the device.

  • NCT04244006 TERMINATED

    no more patients corresponding to the criteriae

  • NCT04323696 WITHDRAWN

    Study was not initiated due to operational and feasibility constraints; no participants were enrolled.

  • NCT04359836 SUSPENDED

    Administrative

  • NCT04453657 SUSPENDED

    Continuing to pursue additional funding to continue with the study

New FDA approvals

38 approvals month-to-date.

No data.

New EMA authorisations

7.5% of the last year's EMA authorisations were conditional.

MedicineAuthorised
Nezglyal2026-09-21

Drug shortage watch

1 new · 0 resolved · 103 currently active.

Newly reported shortagePosted
Arsenic Trioxide Injection2026-09-21

Hottest conditions

Most new trials this week.

  • obesity disorder23
  • chronic pain syndrome18
  • breast cancer18
  • cancer16
  • type 2 diabetes mellitus15
  • Parkinson disease14
  • cognitive disorder13
  • coronary artery disorder10
  • osteoarthritis, knee10
  • hypertensive disorder10

Most active sponsors

Industry sponsors, new trials · trailing 28 days.

  • Research Inc20
  • Novartis Pharmaceuticals12
  • Eli Lilly and Company12
  • Shanghai Minwei Biotechnology Co., Ltd10
  • Pfizer9
  • Novo Nordisk A/S8
  • Hoffmann-La Roche7
  • Sichuan Baili Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.7
  • Truway Health, Inc.6
  • HALEON5

Molecules on the move

New links where the molecule is the studied intervention.

  • buparlisib59
  • atomoxetine26
  • mycophenolic acid20
  • irinotecan17
  • fluciclovine f-1817
  • dexamethasone16
  • amphotericin b14
  • vinorelbine14
  • lidocaine12
  • cytarabine12

Device corner

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

0
New device clearances
86
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
25-0925-1126-0126-0326-0526-0726-08
604,624
US trials
11,791
EU trials
9,237
Molecules
36,015
Diseases (MONDO)
29,868
FDA drugs
2,747
EMA medicines
177,911
FDA devices
1,955,567
Verified drug–trial links
1,148,756
Publications

Trials by phase

  • NA61%
  • PHASE214%
  • PHASE110%
  • PHASE38%
  • PHASE46%
  • EARLY_PHASE11%

Trials by sponsor type

  • OTHER72%
  • 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%
  • NOT_YET_RECRUITING6%
  • TERMINATED6%
  • ACTIVE_NOT_RECRUITING4%
  • WITHDRAWN3%
  • ENROLLING_BY_INVITATION1%
  • SUSPENDED0%
  • WITHHELD0%

Top therapeutic areas

By linked trials (MONDO rollup).

  • cancer or benign tumor121,920
  • nervous system disorder116,714
  • hereditary disease81,844
  • digestive system disorder74,634
  • cardiovascular disorder71,279
  • endocrine system disorder56,423
  • psychiatric disorder53,806
  • musculoskeletal system disorder53,301
  • immune system disorder52,707
  • inflammatory disease49,398
  • respiratory system disorder47,446
  • infectious disease47,157
  • reproductive system disorder39,514
  • metabolic disease35,734
  • hematologic disorder33,412

Trials by country of site

Among the 90,195 trials with a mapped site location — not the whole corpus.

  • United States37,541
  • China10,256
  • France8,485
  • Canada5,965
  • Turkey (Türkiye)5,813
  • Spain5,383
  • United Kingdom5,258
  • Germany5,022
  • Italy5,009
  • South Korea3,267
  • Australia3,170
  • Belgium2,832
  • Poland2,774
  • Egypt2,749
  • Netherlands2,724

Top sponsors

SponsorTrials
Assiut University4,929
Cairo University4,864
GlaxoSmithKline3,638
Assistance Publique - Hôpitaux de Paris3,562
National Cancer Institute (NCI)3,553
AstraZeneca3,486
Pfizer3,311
Mayo Clinic3,253
M.D. Anderson Cancer Center3,031
Novartis Pharmaceuticals2,705
National Taiwan University Hospital2,605
Massachusetts General Hospital2,574
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)2,441
Boehringer Ingelheim2,291
University of California, San Francisco2,164
Riphah International University2,158
Stanford University2,156
Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC2,149
Hoffmann-La Roche2,091
Eli Lilly and Company2,087
Duke University2,056
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center1,952
Ain Shams University1,904
Seoul National University Hospital1,893
Hospices Civils de Lyon1,847

Most-studied conditions

ConditionTrials
breast cancer11,918
obesity disorder9,724
type 2 diabetes mellitus9,222
chronic pain syndrome8,907
cancer8,399
HIV infectious disease8,260
COVID-197,660
non-small cell lung carcinoma6,469
hypertensive disorder6,185
diabetes mellitus6,175
colorectal cancer6,095
cerebrovascular disorder6,088
coronary artery disorder5,994
prostate cancer5,908
depressive disorder5,893
cardiovascular disorder5,644
anxiety disorder5,001
heart failure4,953
injury4,546
Parkinson disease4,495
asthma4,456
cognitive disorder4,244
lung cancer4,094
neuralgia3,912
benign essential hypertension3,729

Most-studied molecules

MoleculeTrials
carboplatin7,258
paclitaxel5,639
isoniazid5,382
prednisolone5,356
cyclophosphamide5,158
ropivacaine4,959
dexamethasone4,860
bevacizumab4,693
cisplatin4,539
lidocaine3,697
aspirin3,439
gemcitabine3,239
bupivacaine3,204
pembrolizumab3,033
metformin3,020
desoxycorticosterone acetate2,994
sitagliptin and metformin hydrochloride2,979
rituximab2,966
meprednisone2,850
sitagliptin metformin hydrochloride2,791
dapagliflozin metformin hydrochloride2,788
docetaxel2,786
linagliptin and metformin hydrochloride2,778
fluorouracil2,766
alogliptin and metformin hydrochloride2,720

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
1,096
862
900
AstraZeneca
1,023
552
810
Pfizer
1,177
710
668
Novartis Pharmaceuticals
512
841
738
Boehringer Ingelheim
1,074
321
400
Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC
702
552
744
Hoffmann-La Roche
495
483
573
Eli Lilly and Company
836
536
550

Patent cliff — loss of exclusivity

FDA drugs whose exclusivity expires soon (distinct substances).

47
< 6 months
45
6–12 months
100
12–24 months
Drug (losing exclusivity < 6mo)Expires
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
Binimetinib2026-10-11
Pilocarpine Hydrochloride2026-10-17
Acetaminophen; Ibuprofen Sodium2026-10-17
Tenapanor Hydrochloride2026-10-17
Treprostinil Diolamine2026-10-18
Edoxaban Tosylate2026-10-18
Adapalene; Benzoyl Peroxide; Clindamycin Phosphate2026-10-20
Ivabradine2026-10-22

Regulatory designations

FDA drugs carrying each designation.

16,544
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 hydrochloride1,971
  • metformin967
  • ropivacaine889
  • prednisolone874
  • lidocaine790
  • dexamethasone779
  • propofol675
  • paclitaxel670

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.