HHS Injects $1.9m to Diversify Lupus Clinical Trials

A chronic autoimmune disease that causes inflammation in different tissues of the body which may in turn lead to permanent tissue damage—lupus can ultimately lead to even more severe conditions such as failing organs and ultimately, death. According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, about 9 out of 10 people diagnosed with lupus are women aged 15 to 44. African American women are three times more likely to be diagnosed with lupus, and they may develop the disease at a younger age and have more serious and life-threatening complications than non-Hispanic white women. Clinical trials play a key role in identifying and developing new and better treatments for individuals with lupus. Consequently, the U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Minority Health (OMH) announced over $1.9 million in grants to four organizations for its National Lupus Outreach and Clinical Trial Education Initiative. Part of a quest to advance clinical trial diversity, as well as to ultimately reduce health disparities experienced by racial and ethnic minority individuals with lupus.

As TrialSite has chronicled, a continuous push to diversify clinical research has failed to ever achieve that goal over the last few decades. This failure is due to a confluence of forces that this media has addressed in many articles, from mistrust of healthcare and pharmaceutical institutions due to a legacy of egregious actions to a lack of awareness and more.