Clinical trials and the diversity principle
If they were ever really hidden, 2020 revealed the expensive-sounding problems limiting diversity in clinical trials. Solutions are overdue.
by Harry Yeates, Strategy Director, Langland
For years, maybe decades, a few minutes in PubMed or Google has provided all the evidence the interested observer needs to learn that there’s a problem with the equitable representation of diverse people in clinical trials. It reaches across various aspects of demography – including age, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status and geography – and is particularly visible when it comes to minority populations. For those people, the lesson has been rather more tangible – in the absence both of clinical trials themselves as a care option, and medicines proven to be effective for them.