A pair of professional organizations in the U.K. is calling for the biopharma industry and national government to take action to improve diversity in clinical trials. The call comes after the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) and the Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC) held an event with industry stakeholders to identify barriers to increasing diversity in clinical research.
Major barriers participants noted had to do with the expense of participating in a clinical trial such as lost wages, travel costs and childcare, the ABPI and the AMRC said in a June 12 release and report summarizing the event. Another connected issue is that many trials require weekday appointments, which is difficult for patients who can’t get time off work.
To address these issues, the report recommends providing patients with financial support such as stipends and travel reimbursements, conducting trials in community health centers nearer to patients’ locations and offering documents in multiple languages or translation services.
“It is important that a representative population participates in clinical trials to ensure that the medicines produced work effectively across the patient group they are intended to treat,” Janet Valentine, Ph.D., the ABPI’s executive director of innovation and research policy, said in the release. “We hope this report catalyzes the necessary system changes that will support more eligible patients taking part in clinical research.”
The report also identified a lack of community engagement and trust as a barrier for diverse populations to participate in trials. To fix this, the report calls for the creation of a U.K.-wide clinical trial diversity road map and commitments from groups like the ABPI and the AMRC to promote best practices.
The findings come a few months after the U.K. debuted new regulations meant to reduce red tape for clinical studies, part of a broader plan by Prime Minister Keir Starmer to “turbocharge” medical research in the country.