Plotting the way forward on clinical trial diversity

As the old adage goes, the first step towards solving a problem is admitting you have one. For pharma’s clinical trial diversity problem, that first step was a monumental undertaking, but in the last few years, it’s one that seems to have been cleared. The next steps won’t be easy either. Making clinical trial diversity the status quo will require flexibility, accountability, collaboration, and an openness to new ways of thinking about trials. To find out more, we spoke with experts from across the industry who are doing the work to learn what it’s going to take to make real progress.

Clinical trial diversity has been gaining currency, at least as a talking point, for the last several years. And, most would agree, it’s about time.

“We’ve been doing trials the same way for five decades,” Christopher Boone, AbbVie’s vice president and global head of health economics and outcomes research, told pharmaphorum in an interview last year. “Truly, the exact same way. So, if there’s any area that’s ripe for disruption, I would say clinical trials are it.”

Like so many other industry disruptions, the recent prominence of clinical trial diversity work seems to have been pushed along by COVID-19, which disproportionately affected racial minority communities, as well as nationwide protests in the United States after the killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis in 2020.

• Read the full article in pharmaphorum's Deep Dive digital magazine