The prevention and treatment of missing data in clinical trials: an FDA perspective on the importance of dealing with it.

At the request of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and with its funding, the Panel on the Handling of Missing Data in Clinical Trials was created by the National Research Council's Committee on National Statistics. This panel recently published a report(1) with recommendations that will be of use not only to the FDA but also to the entire clinical trial community so that the latter can take measures to improve the conduct and analysis of clinical trials.