US must urgently correct ethnic and racial disparities in clinical trials, says report

Underrepresentation of ethnic and racial groups in US research and clinical trials compounds the disparities in health outcomes in these groups and should be corrected urgently, a report has concluded.

The report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine was mandated by Congress and sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).1

“Our workforce should look more like our nation,” the report said. It called on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), institutional review boards (IRBs), the NIH, and journal editors and publishers to act to improve diversity in populations in clinical trials and research, in studies submitted for drug approvals, and in published reports. …