New Association of Diversity in Clinical Trials portal attracts 130 new members in weeks

The Association of Diversity in Clinical Trials (AOD) has launched a membership portal designed to make US drug research more inclusive.

The portal – which provides participants with access to a professional network, information resources and shares details of collaborative opportunities – has already attracted over 130 members according to the Dallas, Texas-based organization.

Diana Foster, president, and chief diversity officer at AOD, said the response to the portal was indicative of a significant need in the US clinical trials sector.

"This reflects the urgent need and shared commitment to addressing diversity gaps in clinical trials. Together, the community aims to make a significant impact on ensuring diverse representation in clinical research," Foster said.

The portal was launched at the inaugural Black Women in Clinical (BWICR) conference in Raleigh, North Carolina last October.

Diversity efforts

The event – and the AOD portal itself – reflect a year of efforts to make US pharmaceutical clinical trials more diverse.

Last summer, for example, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released guidelines calling on trial sponsors should submit a “Race and Ethnicity Diversity Plan,” which sets out diverse participant enrolment and retention processes early in clinical development.

The aim is to make studies enroll participants from a broad range of ethnic populations according to the FDA, which cited African American, Hispanic/Latino, Indigenous and Native American, Asian and Native Hawaiian as examples of underrepresented groups.

“Individuals from these populations are frequently underrepresented in biomedical research despite having a disproportionate disease burden for certain diseases relative to their proportional representation in the general population,” the FDA wrote at the time.

But while such efforts are a move in the right direction, there is still much to do. According to a 2020 study fewer than 10% of US patients participate in trials, and of those, only 5-15% are non-Caucasian – even though those ethnicities make up nearly 40% of the population.

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