AstraZeneca reviews diversity in trials to ensure drugs work for all

theguardian.com:

The pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca is conducting a major review of diversity across its trials in an attempt to ensure its medicines work for all population groups, although it has admitted that including pregnant women is a particular challenge.

The head of oncology at Britain’s biggest drugmaker, David Fredrickson told the Guardian that the firm was among those leading efforts to improve participation of people of colour and other under-represented groups in clinical trials.

Speaking on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, he called it applying an “equity lens” to every phase of the medicine’s lifecycle.

Concerns have been raised that a lack of diversity among volunteers participating in clinical trials may result in drugs and medical equipment being developed that are less effective in certain groups.

Pregnant women are one such cohort of concern. “Pregnancy is a common and almost universal exclusion for clinical trials,” Fredrickson said, admitting that the issue is a “more challenging one to tackle” for the industry.

The situation meant that that group was excluded from trials for coronavirus vaccines, and public confusion over whether the shots were safe for pregnant women ultimately led to a low uptake. A major review eventually found that the jabs are safe and also reduce the risk of stillbirth by 15%.

However, last autumn pregnant women were still being turned away from Covid vaccine clinics despite advice to the contrary, and a disproportionate number of those in hospital with Covid were unvaccinated pregnant women. One study found they made up one in six of 118 Covid patients requiring the most intensive ventilation treatment.

While vaccine uptake among pregnant women rose from 23%