Successful development of any new medicine, treatment or therapy is reliant on its ability to meet the needs of patient populations in demand of those treatments. Clinical trials is where the rubber meets the road so to speak, but has long been an area of scientific research void of representational racial and ethnic participation.
According to a study from Syneos Health titled “How to Boost Racial Ethnic and Gender Diversity in Clinical Research,” 83% of clinical trial participants were white in 2018. While Black and Hispanic people make up nearly 40% of the population, they represented just 2% and 1% of clinical trial participants, respectively.
Participation and access has historically been low for a variety factors, but it typically comes back to three key issues, according to an analysis from the National Center for Biotechnology Information:
