Clinical Trial Diversity: We Must ‘Turn This Moment Into A Movement’

 
• By Brenda Sandburg
  
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Pfizer and Genentech execs describe steps they’ve taken to increase diversity in clinical trials from moving trial sites into new neighborhoods to modifying protocols and holding others accountable for diversity.

Diversity
Industry execs note steps they have taken to boost clinical trial diversity • Source: Shutterstock

The call for diversity in clinical trial participants reached a crescendo last year with the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic and the killing of George Floyd. The US Food and Drug Administration sped up the tempo when it issued guidance specifying what companies can do to boost enrollment of people of color. But some stakeholders are concerned that it may not be enough to get sponsors to modify their practices.

”One criticism is that the guidance is not a mandate and therefore will not lead to meaningful change,” Charlotte Jones-Burton,...

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