Clinical Trial Diversity
Patients are at the heart of everything we do. By the end of 2022, 100% of our US clinical studies had diversity targets to help ensure our clinical trials represent the populations who are most affected by a disease.
Participating in clinical trials has long been challenging for some patients, involving long travel times, time away from work and family, or even flying to a different country. These obstacles, among many others, such as the lack of trust with the healthcare system, can contribute to disparities and limit diversity. Our Act4Patients program centers on inclusive clinical trial designs that address the whole patient experience. We start with evaluating and understanding barriers to participation, leveraging digital health technologies (e.g., wearables, connected devices) and artificial intelligence when they can be most impactful.
We partner with historically underrepresented racial and ethnic minority communities and other marginalized groups to overcome barriers, make clinical trials more accessible, and build an equitable future of medicine. In July 2022, we were proud to be part of the Beacon of Hope program: a 10-year collaboration with historically black medical schools in the US to help achieve greater diversity, health equity, and inclusion of historically underrepresented individuals in clinical trials. Every step counts, because more diverse clinical trials help us bring the next generation of medicines to the patients of tomorrow.
We’re proud to have been recognized for our progress by the Reuters Pharma US Delivering Inclusive Studies Award, and by the Bioethics International Good Pharma Scorecard (GPS) GOLD rating: the highest possible for DE&I in clinical research.
“Our goal is to improve the lives of all people. We design our programs to be inclusive, to represent the diversity of the patient populations living with the disease. But diversifying clinical trials isn’t something we can do alone. By partnering with marginalized communities, we believe we can make clinical research more equitable and accessible.”
“Clinical trials are where so much of the transformation of medicine happens. And as we continue to reimagine them through the Act4Patients program, we look forward to a day when everyone who wants to be part of a trial has the opportunity to do so, no matter who or where they are.”
Chief Medical Officer & Global Head of Development