WHO Global Clinical Trials Forum: A key opportunity for patients
October 15, 2025
The WHO has launched the new Global Clinical Trials Forum (GCTF), a global, multi-stakeholder network designed to strengthen the environment and infrastructure for clinical trials at national, regional and global levels.
The Forum is a direct response to the World Health Assembly resolution WHA75.8, which called on the WHO to improve the quality and coordination of clinical trials worldwide.
Why this matters for patients
For the WPA, the launch of the GCTF is a meaningful step. Patients rely on rigorous, ethical, inclusive clinical trials to ensure new treatments are safe, effective and relevant for diverse populations.
• Trials that are better-designed and inclusive mean better evidence for patient care.
• When trial infrastructure is weak, results may be delayed, unreliable or exclude vulnerable groups.
• Patients from low- and middle-income countries often face the greatest barriers in trial participation and benefit; a network like GCTF has the potential to reduce these gaps.
What the Forum aims to do
According to WHO, the GCTF will:
• Support implementation of the WHO’s Guidance for Best Practices for Clinical Trials and the Global Action Plan for Clinical Trial Ecosystem Strengthening (GAP-CTS).
• Bring together regulators, ethics authorities, funders, researchers, civil society and patient/community engagement organisations.
• Enable thematic working groups to advance best practice, improve trial readiness in health systems and promote equitable and sustainable evidence generation.
WPA’s focus and priorities
WPA will engage with this development in several ways:
• Advocate for patient involvement in trial governance, design and conduct. Patients must be partners, not just participants.
• Support inclusive trial access, ensuring under-represented populations (rural, low income, older, chronic disease) can benefit from research advances.
• Promote transparency and accountability; patients need clear information about trials, how results are used and how their input matters.
• Encourage trials to address patient-relevant outcomes, not only regulatory endpoints. What matters to patients must shape research questions.
• Monitor how commitments turn into action: Are countries building systems, allocating resources, tracking progress?
The launch of the GCTF represents a strong signal: clinical trials matter, and they must be strengthened globally so that all patients benefit. But the real test lies ahead. For patients everywhere, what matters is that better trial systems translate into safer treatments, faster access, stronger evidence and health equity.
WPA calls on national governments, research institutions and patient groups to seize this opportunity and make sure patients’ voices are central in the future of clinical trials.