Clinical Trials And Minorities

ALERT! Clinical Trials And Minorities (NAPSA)—The mosteffective way to find treatments for diseases that predominantly affect ethnic and racial minorities, say the experts, is to include more minority patients in clinical trials. Lack of access might be a fac- tor, say experts at The Endocrine Society, an organization devoted to research on hormones and the clinical practice of endocrinology. Or perhaps doctors are not asking enough minority patients to par- ticipate in suchtrials. 4 f . | ‘ A J Zz Minorities need better represen- tation in clinical trials, especially those that focus on diseases that primarily affect them. A paper by the Society asks the pharmaceutical industry, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and other research organizations to help expand minority participation in clinical research. In fact, the paper asksfor legisla- tion requiring FDA trials to include minorities and women to qualify for approval. Tax incentives could makethis easier to accomplish. The paper is published at www.endo-society.org/publicpolicy/ health_disparities.