Two drug trade groups sent a memo to senior industry executives proposing to get patient groups “to express concern about the risk to public health by nonscientific reuse of data,” The Guardian reports. The U.K. newspaper claims a drug company employee leaked the memo.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is considering mandating full disclosure of data from clinical trials. Currently, about half of the data is published from such trials. Proponents of full data disclosure believe such transparency would help scientists and patients. The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) and the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) oppose such intervention by the EMA.

As a result, PhRMA and EFPIA created a four-part strategy to sow doubts, and the memo details their plan. In addition to enlisting patient groups to raise concerns, the strategy seeks to enlist scientific groups and business groups. The strategy also calls for a network of academics to correct false interpretations of data. The memo was sent to directors and legal counsel at Roche, Merck, Pfizer, GSK, AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly, Novartis and others.

In response, the Treatment Action Group (TAG) and a coalition of HIV/AIDS advocacy groups and individual advocates are urging patient groups and other stakeholders worldwide to support full data disclosure, according to a TAG statement. In particular, the coalition urges support of the AllTrials Initiative, a petition seeking such disclosure.

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To read the statement, click here.

To sign the petition, click here.