Boosting Diversity in Drug Trials

Biotech company Genentech has eight drugs in various stages of development as therapeutics for COVID-19. But early in the pandemic, the company decided to turn over a large chunk of its manufacturing capacity to a competitor. Time was of the essence, and this company had a promising monoclonal antibody cocktail in the wings. Will this spirit of collaboration survive post-pandemic? That's just one topic Leadership Next explores with Genentech CEO Alexander Hardy.

Another big topic of conversation: health equity and the diversity of drug trials. Health disparities between races is nothing new, but the pandemic put a bright spotlight on the issue. It quickly became clear that COVID-19 was hitting communities of color hard. This did not go unnoticed by Hardy who told Alan Murray and Ellen McGirt "we have a really significant responsibility as an industry to society to never let these sorts of issues impact these populations as they've done now." One part of solving this problem is ensuring that drugs in development are effective for all people, and that requires including more people of color in clinical trials.

Diana Zuckerman, President of the National Center for Health Research, joins Leadership Next to more fully explore why today's clinical trials lack diversity, and what needs to happen to change that.